Etsy have announced that that they support the new House INFORM Legislation introduced by Chairwoman Jan Schakowsky and Ranking Member Gus Bilirakis.
In their press release, Etsy detail how supporting the new legislation means they can continue building trust among their users and operate with transparency at the forefront.
“Over the last year, we have seen a flood of bills introduced at the state and federal levels aimed at combating counterfeit goods or preventing organized retail crime. While many of these bills have worthy goals, too often the legislation includes onerous provisions, like the public disclosure of small sellers’ personal contact information, that could harm sellers’ privacy, safety, and security. This is especially relevant to Etsy sellers, most of whom are women, shops of one, and run their businesses from their homes. In fact, over the last year 27,000 Etsy sellers joined us in sharing these concerns directly with policymakers.
We are pleased to share today that our sellers’ collective voice was heard alongside Etsy’s efforts to protect our community. Over the past several months, Etsy and our sellers have worked with the House sponsors of the INFORM Act to reach the shared goal of protecting consumers from bad actors while avoiding overly broad disclosure requirements that would harm our sellers’ privacy and hinder their ability to run their creative businesses.”
– Jeffrey Zubricki, Head of US Government Relations, Etsy
The Legislation provides a thoughtful approach to protecting consumers by strengthening vetting best practices for online marketplaces and enhancing the ability for consumers to know from whom they are buying. The bill does this while also protecting and preserving the privacy and security of the diverse, broad array of good, honest sellers. It successfully establishes a framework to weed out criminal activity without harming the economic livelihood of America’s small online sellers.
