Question regarding emarket host directing customers to other sellers

[VintageDiva]

Hi ~ I sell on Etsy and in case you're not familiar with them, they are basically a venue for selling Vintage or handmade items and the orders there are processed via Paypal. They have just started a new policy of sending an order confirmation from our sales to new customers thanking them for their order with links to other sellers along with blatant advertisements of their items in the confirmation email. It not only seems like illegal spam, because there is no way to opt out of an order confirmation email, but also it feels like an infringement in our transactions with our customers. There is currently a 4916 (and counting) post thread in the Etsy forum right now of angry sellers, which has been basically ignored by Etsy admin for 4 days. As sellers on Etsy, we are constantly encouraged to build a brand and promote heavily outside of Etsy to bring in new customers because they are too cheap to advertise. Many of the sellers pay for outside ad campaigns and are angry that the new customers they bring in will be directed to other sellers' shops with links & photos of their items in their order confirmations.

So to get to my question, is there currently any law to protect online sellers from having their sales transactions interfered with by their host and is this technically illegal spam? Thanks!

[wartznall]

Hi ~ I sell on Etsy and in case you're not familiar with them, they are basically a venue for selling Vintage or handmade items and the orders there are processed via Paypal. They have just started a new policy of sending an order confirmation from our sales to new customers thanking them for their order with links to other sellers along with blatant advertisements of their items in the confirmation email. It not only seems like illegal spam, because there is no way to opt out of an order confirmation email, but also it feels like an infringement in our transactions with our customers. There is currently a 4916 (and counting) post thread in the Etsy forum right now of angry sellers, which has been basically ignored by Etsy admin for 4 days. As sellers on Etsy, we are constantly encouraged to build a brand and promote heavily outside of Etsy to bring in new customers because they are too cheap to advertise. Many of the sellers pay for outside ad campaigns and are angry that the new customers they bring in will be directed to other sellers' shops with links & photos of their items in their order confirmations.

So to get to my question, is there currently any law to protect online sellers from having their sales transactions interfered with by their host and is this technically illegal spam? Thanks!

Technically it's not "illegal spam." The platform you're using - any platform be it eBay, Etsy, eCrater, etc. - has the right to provide this or any service for their customers. They're taking advantage of providing 'Confirmation' correspondence on behalf of their customers: sellers.

The community may be able to persuade Etsy to opt in or out of such correspondence or alter advertising policies or maybe do away with it completely but Etsy is not breaking the law.

This should serve as a heads-up for sellers. In order to increase revenue they will try to increase affiliate advertising. If that fails to provide enough revenue their customers, sellers, will face fee increases.

Good luck!