Etsy tells sellers it’s going to advertise their goods and take a big cut of the sale

Photo: Chris Welch / The Verge

Etsy is going to start automatically advertising its sellers’ products and taking a fee — at least 12 percent — for every sale it refers. The ads will appear on “high-traffic sites” like Google, Facebook, and Pinterest, and they’ll be a requirement for shops doing more than $10,000 in sales each year. The change means a potentially big disruption for sellers that could lead to higher prices.

Sellers are complaining in Etsy’s online forum. One seller called it a “BS money grab.” Others called it “absolutely unfair” and “the most ridiculous thing I have seen.”

“This is just greed!” one seller wrote. “While us who work hard suffer.”

All sellers will be opted into the advertising program when it goes live next month. Sellers making less than...

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