Our Transparency Report is an important way that we demonstrate our commitment to being a mindful, transparent and trusted brand.


Today, we’re releasing our 2020 Transparency Report — a look back at our policy enforcement for the year, including our Intellectual Property, Prohibited Items and Requests for Member Information policies. 


Our Transparency Report is an important way that we demonstrate our commitment to being a mindful, transparent, and trusted brand. We choose to share this information annually to reinforce these values and help our community better understand how we’re working to keep our marketplace safe. 


All members of our community agree to follow Our House Rules, and our specialized Trust & Safety teams maintain the health and integrity of the marketplace by enforcing these policies. The full report is available here and a few highlights from 2020 are below:


  • We received nearly 4 million flags regarding potentially noncompliant listings, a 400% increase in flags from 2019; breaches of our Handmade Policy and our Intellectual Property Policy were among the most commonly flagged violations. This increase is in large part due to the exponential growth of the Etsy marketplace last year. 
  • We saw a 58% increase in the number of intellectual property takedowns compared to 2019, which we also attribute to the growth of the Etsy marketplace last year. 66% of intellectual property takedowns were executed on accounts located in North America and Europe.
  • We rejected almost 15% of intellectual property takedown notices due to insufficient information, incorrect information, or other noncompliance under Etsy’s policies which is roughly consistent with 2019.

  • About .44% of orders placed in 2020 went through our Case System, up from .37% in 2019. This slight increase was driven by a surge in the case rate in April related to rapid growth in mask sales, carrier delays and marketplace growth.
  • Looking ahead to 2021, we are investing at least $40 million to further expand our Trust & Safety Program in order to expand our content review teams, evolve our policies and target key categories, and introduce product enhancements. Learn more here.
  • For the first time, we are sharing Etsy’s Product Safety Principles, which reflect our commitment to maintaining an environment that promotes trust and safety for our vibrant community of buyers and sellers through reinforcing appropriate product safety practices.