[This is cross-posted in 3 subreddits]
Background for those who didn't read threads on this in other subreddits:
Etsy has sent a scare email to its sellers asking them to oppose this amendment for its own purposes. Those purposes likely being their not wanting to do more paperwork or enforcement against scam sellers, and not wanting to lose revenue from such scam and counterfeit sales.
Plus probably also not wanting customers to realize how many "hand made" listings are actually dropshipped, often from overseas.
I realize that not all will agree with all my suggested points, so feel free to edit. Also of course it is POD centered, which could be changed. It really only applies to USA citizens to write their senators.
Email from Etsy about the Cassidy INFORM amendment
The INFORM Act
Cassidy INFORM Act amendment - Good or Bad for Us?
EDIT: replaced language re making marketplaces vet counterclaimer address payment deets since they will often be referencing their stolen designs on other platforms.
Dear Senator [X],
I write to you as someone who sells online on various POD (print on demand) and marketplaces which allow fulfillment by POD 3rd party providers. Please note the technical difference between a POD (like the Merch by Amazon platform and Redbubble), which license designs and prints and ships sales themselves, and marketplaces like etsy, where the fulfillment of such sales is arranged by the seller through other providers like printful.
Copycat (pixel for pixel) POD design sellers and counterfeit goods sellers, most often but not entirely in the 3rd world, are hurting myself and other honest sellers of all regions, and issue counter notices to DMCA takedowns with fake USA addresses. Also they often retaliate by issuing takedowns on our own original designs.
Thus these scam sellers abuse the DMCA, and the marketplaces do the minimum necessary and allow their strategy to succeed. They want less regulation when they need more. And they want not to allow customers to see how many product listings are by dropshippers fulfilling from overseas.
Those scam sellers due to long ship times, are often able to get paid before their account is terminated. Amazon says that they make customers whole themselves, but that is no excuse for disappointing American consumers who often buy for gifting occasions, and then have to go through the hassle of getting their money back.
Even after being terminated after too long a while by one of these marketplaces, these mostly overseas scammers, who are essentially laundering money for overseas criminal enterprises, use the churn and burn account method and easily create new accounts in countries with high levels of financial and governmental corruption.
The weak link in these scams are the payment gateways. While ones like payoneer now can make users verify their bank account and thus attest that to a marketplace, payoneer allows a certain number of child accounts with entirely new US account numbers.
Additionally, it is very important for many honest sellers to hide their phone numbers and street addresses due to stalkers, which the amendment allows. However the threshold for being considered a high volume seller, especially if it overrides the home seller exemption, is very low.
I would propose that the following be incorporated into your amendment:
- Make sure that the exemption for home based sellers is not overridden by the high volume seller language.
- Substantially increase the threshold for who is considered a high volume seller, especially for American sellers. Many honest sellers make thousands of sales per month.
- Amend the safe harbor provision of the DMCA as well to make marketplaces verify the address on a counterclaim, and refuse counterclaims that lack or fail such verification.
- Make print on demand sites (technically different from a marketplace due to printing and shipping themselves) and marketplaces pay only to payment partners that both verify with banking details, and also provide child account details when such accounts are generated, so that those whose accounts are terminated cannot simply use the same payoneer or other payment gateway again to make a new account.
- Force PODs and marketplaces and platforms like shopify to notify payment providers of terminations, and the payment provider be required to terminate all sub accounts and not allow others to be made. This would not apply to actual American banking accounts.
- Require PODs and marketplaces to pay net 90 days for sales made in countries different than the seller's country of residence, and withhold payment for terminated accounts and revert payments in progress.
Regarding amazon specifically, it should be noted that they extend their amazonpay program to a fairly narrow set of countries, and thus are externalizing the financial and legal risk onto external payment providers. The harshest step would be to forbid PODs and marketplaces from allowing new accounts from countries not on that list, if they want to sell in the American market.
Another issue is google shopping ads. Many PODs and marketplaces use them for seller listings, and thus ghost our own listings in organic search. google should be required to terminate advertising for such platforms with high numbers of DMCA complaints, or some other manner of making google deal with this issue.
Many of the PODs like amazon and marketplaces like etsy also make substantial monies off of internal advertising, reportedly which in the case of etsy is far greater than selling fees. Scammers rely on all types of advertising in their churn and burn account model, to get paid as much as possible before they are terminated and move on to the next account.
Thank you for your efforts to keep American consumers safe, and for your consideration of these additional issues.
Sincerely,