Venturing into replica hell

But I'm also still dipping into those women's magazines, and they are making me feel genuinely bad about my life achievements. Because I don't yet have an 'investment handbag'. My stance on 'investment handbags' has always been that if I were going to make a £600 investment, it would probably be in Post Office bonds - and not something that, by and large, lives on the floor in pubs, or which I sometimes use to carry 5lb of potatoes home. If I'm honest, the handbag I would probably like most is a big hollowed-out potato with handles on it. A giant Kind Edward with satchel straps. Then, in times of crisis, I could bake and eat the handbag and survive the winter. That is the way of my people. - Caitlin Moran "How to be a woman"

And so our story begins. One of my friends (yes, I get attached too fast and too soon) has sent me this mail:

One day I was searching for purses and came upon this shop, popularbag. One item in particular (this one) caught my eye because you could see the logo of the designer right on the bag (the logo has since been slightly blurred to be less obvious).

I don't know much about designer purses but a quick Google search of  "Celine handbag" led me to finding this bag, which seems to come in different colors for different seasons.

This, to me, is the source of two issues:

1.  it's doubtful that this seller (and his "collective" of his wife and sister) handmade hundreds of complicated designs and
2. copyright infringement hardly seems like something that should be allowed on Etsy. 

After reporting the shop and item twice (with links to the Celine handbag site) and not having any action taken on the shop, I emailed Etsy's Integrity Team directly. These are a few lines from the watered down response that I received:

Due to the confidentiality of our flagging process, we cannot comment on the specific shop you linked to in your email. We will take a look at it, and if it does not meet our policies, then we will contact that seller and handle it privately. In the future, if you see a shop that you think may not be following Etsy's policies, the best way to let us know is to use the "Report this shop to Etsy" link on the Shop home page. This puts your report into a queue that is reviewed daily.

 I couldn't resist emailing back:

Thanks for the response. I find the generic nature of it to be slightly discouraging, however, and since the shop that I emailed you about is still up and running, I guess I'll conclude that Etsy now allows sellers of knockoff handbags (that in my opinion aren't likely to be handmade in addition to being blatant stealing of someone else's design) to be within their TOUs. As a seller of entirely handmade items, I find this to be really disheartening.  

I also did use the "Report this shop to Etsy" link, twice in fact, in bringing this shop to your attention, using the tag "not handmade," which I believe is appropriate in this case. I've seen many sellers of knockoff handbags on the streets of Manhattan and I don't believe that these people make their bags, either. I assume that all knockoffs are purchased wholesale from a factory somewhere that makes illicit goods. 

When the item wasn't removed after the second time that I reported it (with the link included in my email to you) I figured that it must have been missed because I honestly didn't think that Etsy would encourage items of that nature to be sold. I guess I just keep hoping that it's lack of staff that allows stuff like this to take over the site and not a lack of integrity."

At this point I received a generic response nearly identical to the first, but the specific item that I had reported was taken down. However, a week later, it was relisted. I emailed Etsy's Integrity Team again and was basically told to use the flagging system to report items. The shop remains open to this day...

To take counterfeiting seriously, you have to treat it the same way you would stolen property,” said John Gioconda, a lawyer who represents several fancy luxury brands. “If you’re caught purchasing it, you’re punished. It’s the only way to put a real dent in the problem.

Alas, go forth and report! You can use this blogpost. Also, send in your stories!