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Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Hi. So I just received an email: we received the attached legal process seeking information,records,or other action regarding your account.in accordance with this notification,we have suspended your account privileges.we cannot provide you with legal advice.if you have questions about the legal process,you should consult an attorney.if you wish to object to the legal process,you or you attorney should contact the attorney who issued the subpoena or the issuing court. This is issued by attorney for plaintiff which are in Illinois. ( account is registered in Scotland)I was selling patches with mostly small ISH band logos these are not official been selling for about 8 months. Taken about 6 grand through. The account and attached bank account are in my sister name. Address registered is old address. Email address attached is not attached is stealth. Any advice on what might happen?

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Any input anyone?

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Advice is don't seek legal advice in the forum. Noone knows anything and any input is a high chance to be misleading

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Hey wasn't looking for legal advice but more the steps that may be taken. IV concluded that the request was sent to Etsy and they may or may not hand over information and records to these people. These people would then decide whether to take further action.

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

IMO there is very little they can do. They are not going to spend good money chasing you through the UK legal system unless of course you are obviously wealthy

The deed is done, your account is toast, all you can do is sit back and await developments.

:ranger:

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Don't lose sleep over it, I highly doubt they will spend the money that it will cost for them to pursue you.

Did you get many etsy takedowns / removals of listings prior to this final suspension ?

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

I got 1 or 2 removals but this was around 4 months ago. Nothing since. Thanks for the good words. Hopefully they will leave me alone. 🤞

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Best of luck :)

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

it could just be a quick way to suspend sellers because removal of an item does not lead to suspension in many cases but threat of legal proceedings certainly does

I would not worry too much if you do not run a multi million pound operation there. it is not just expensive to take you to court but they also need to present proof , it is with ebay/etsy/amazon etc. where people can be removed randomly using someone's clues , opinions , feelings etc. , in a court of law they would need to show specific evidence which I bet they don't have

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Thanks for that. I suppose if they are seeking records from Etsy they can see what IV sold and use that as evidence. I'm hoping it doesn't go further. Its definitely been an eye opener for me. Seems way beyond a little Etsy slap on the wrist/removal. Defiinitly no multi million pound operation. £6 grand or bit Less went through.

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Sometimes they just feel the need to make an example of someone for some publicity or political motivation. It's not always a monetary consideration.

Would I be worried, you bet I would. This is not just a regular account closure due to copyright infringement.

That said, would I take any action at this stage. Nope, none whatsoever. I wouldn't reply to any communications until it's pretty clear it's getting serious and only then would I seek legal advice. Keep your nerve and it should blow over. Fingers crossed.

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

what did you sell?

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

It depends how strong the brand is?
Rolex will have a lawyer sending out letters

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Didn't you read what he wrote ?

" I was selling patches with mostly small ISH band logos these are not official been selling for about 8 months. "

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Hi,
I got the same email from Etsy.
I was reading on reddit there are some people they got the same email too.
All they do is settlements so you have to pay and then they will give back your account.

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

If that route is being taken then its something serious. Did you defraud anyone?

It sounds like your info is being subpoenaed. Which means the police are involved investigating a crime.

They will subpoena your ip info from etsy and trace that back to your door. If that doesnt work then they will follow up with the bank attached to your etsy and subpoena your info that way. So stealth wont help you whatsoever.

Good Luck.

Stealth is ok as long as you dont commit a crime like fraud. Otherwise youre an easy find.

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Welcome to the forum OP - all the best as you master stealth :thumb:

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Do you think you could message me? I have some questions as a good friend of mine just got this eCBmail as well! I joined just to message you but it wont let me since I haven’t made any posts. If you can’t message me on here my name on here is pretty much the same across all socials.

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Welcome to the forum - all the best as you master stealth :thumb:

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Did your friend get same email from Illinois? Also can you tell me what company was that that hired these lawers?

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Hey bhuzz, i just got this same email, was wondering if anything come out of your email. I'm currently 5 months pregnant and now very worried.

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

If I am understanding this correctly as an Intellectual property issue, In my opinion I doubt anything will come of it....but nobody here can say for sure.

What exactly were you selling?

Is 6,000 the total amount yoiu sold, or the total of one transaction? I cant imagine someone hiring an attorney for a small amount.

Etsy will provide all the info that it is able, including IP addresses, etc etc...
Did Etsy provide you a copy of the subpoena?

Whoever hired the attorney was likely just trying to scare you and shut down your shop, which happened. BUT - it depends on what law(s) they believe you are in breach of.

Anyone who received a similar email needs to find a way contact the offended parties to get more information. Depending on the offense, it may be better to IGNORE the letter, in others, you want to try to GET AHEAD of it in case your identity can be exposed by what info Etsy has.

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Sorry for the double post, do you have any more information you can provide i.e what were you selling and the amounts, any unhappy customers?

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

hi, I read your message where you say that your etsy account has been blocked. May I ask what happened next? I received this email too and I am very worried

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

OP said the account and bank are both under her sister's name

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

I would like to know if @bhuzz can tell us what exactly happened after the first email and if he was represented by a lawyer

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

If you read the first post Etsy was contacted for information by an attorney, probably subpoenaed it for the purpose of sending a letter before action. If it is an IP case it is very costly in the USA as it is federal court. EBay and Amazon usually do not respond much to these subpoenas limiting info to name and address of seller and do not suspend the seller. Etsy probably takes a different track and suspend the account the other 2 do not and do not inform you either. One thing I am certain of, is usually you are contacted and warned about any intellectual property infringements and if ignored then then a big company will proceed with suing you.

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

I'll bet you a grand very very few indeed proceed to court.

I'll wager this one fizzled out too when the fishing-trip-attorney realised there was no milage in pursuing a bit player on the other side of the Atlantic.

I've have two suchlike approaches in my wider days, albeit directly and not via the selling platform. Ignored them and they simply went away.

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Don't expect too much here

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

I did ignore the warnings to cease selling product that was contravening IP rights and it went legal and the courts awarded the other side $17.1 million. So never ignore any warning, there are attorneys out there on retention from large corporates who will sue in any country, equally there are specialist companies retained by the corporates looking for companies breaking the rules, not only on the selling platforms but personal websites as well. The big corporates do not play nice even if you are not breaking the law and they want to take you down, they want you out of he way.

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

No need for bull$hit, lets keep it real. :thumb:

If you're to be believed, which I don't, then maybe you wouldn't have got in that mess if you'd taken the generally accepted advice of ignoring all fishing trip letters. :)

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Just googled it out of curiosity, found several results about this law firm from Chicago but here's a few interesting threads

https://copyrightaid.co.uk/forum/vie...d5268d214b8d87

https://www.reddit.com/r/EtsySellers..._etsy_sellers/

What's curious by reading the threads is that it seems they're targetting etsy accounts outside of USA, first they manage to get the store of the target closed by etsy with the threat of legal action and then they extort money to settle so the seller can recover their etsy account and get on with his business.

They seem very sketchy, they also apparently changed names at least once. It might be they're targetting users outside USA because they don't really have a solid legal basis, a seller outside USA can't realistically fight in court and the main objective is just to get sellers to settle with the promise of recovering their etsy accounts.

That's just what it looks like to me by reading through this threads but don't take this as advice as every situation is different, do your own investigation and draw your own conclusions.

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

The only person who is full of bull**** is you hank, pm me and I will give you book verse and chapter. I have been sued twice the first time, not my fault and thats a whole new story.

I was advising not to ignore like I did because that happens, please read the threads before jumping in with comments.

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

If you're making serious money from products that infringe copyright you will eventually get caught. Some of these brands have lawyers that are like rottweilers ready to bite.

Re: Etsy. Notice of legal process seeking information??? Help
 

Well stated