From Apr. 11 through Apr. 18, thousands of Etsy sellers decided to go on strike in order to protest Etsy’s treatment. The Etsy retailers have demands that they would like the company to uphold. These include canceling the fee increase, cracking down on resellers with a comprehensive and transparent plan, giving support tickets to those affected by extreme artificial intelligence actions, ending the star seller program and giving all vendors the opportunity to opt out of site ads, all according to etsystrike.org.

The fee increase from 2021 to 2022 went up by 1.5%, according to litcommerce.com. The Etsy “Star Seller” program recognizes and rewards the sellers who provide a good customer experience, according to etsy.com.

Along with going on strike, Etsy sellers wrote letters to the company, met with many reporters from various news outlets and created a petition. This petition gained over 77,000 signatures, all according to etsystrike.org.

Etsy’s founder, Rob Kalin, came back on Twitter after a seven and a half year break to come out in support of the movement. “I support @EtsyStrike. This is getting ridiculous. Time to build a better marketplace for handmade goods,” Kalin tweeted, according to etsystrike.org.

Raina Moskowitz, Etsy’s chief operating officer, said in a statement that Etsy is always open to feedback and with the new fee structure in place, it will enable them to improve areas outlined in the petition. These areas include marketing, customer support and removing listings that do not meet the policies, all according to cnbc.com.

Etsy has failed to make improvements to their store and sellers see success in the media coverage they have received, according to etsystrike.org.