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Reverb.com will not raise transaction fee as parent company Etsy has

Thousands of Etsy sellers are currently protesting a rise from a 5 to a 6.5 per cent transaction fee.

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Screenshot via Reverb

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Reverb.com will not raise its selling fee to 6.5 per cent as its parent company Etsy has recently done, the company has confirmed.

Currently, thousands of sellers on the online marketplace Etsy are striking, setting their shops to “vacation mode” until 18 April. Sellers are striking in protest of an increase in the Etsy transaction fee of from 5 per cent to 6.5 per cent – a 30 per cent increase overall.

The move has prompted some speculation as to whether music gear marketplace Reverb, owned by Etsy, will follow suit with an increase in its transaction fee. One year after it was acquired by Etsy, Reverb increased its transaction fee to five per cent, matching what Etsy’s was at the time.

However, a Reverb.com spokesperson told Guitar.com that it does not plan to at present, saying: “The announcement of Etsy’s increased transaction fee only applies to Etsy.com. Reverb operates independently, and there are currently no plans to increase the transaction fees on Reverb.”

Reverb was acquired by Etsy in August of 2019. Josh Silverman, CEO of Etsy, commented at the time: “We are excited to officially welcome Reverb’s employees and the entire Reverb community to Etsy. We see significant potential in the Reverb marketplace and look forward to supporting them as they enable more and more music lovers around the world to buy, sell, connect, and learn. It is our goal to unlock further value in what is already a strong and vibrant business with key competitive differentiation.”

Around a year later in July 2020, the marketplace announced that its selling fee would increase to 5 per cent, from 3.5 per cent. It stated that the selling fee “will enable Reverb to make substantial additional investments in marketing, customer support, and seller tools aimed at attracting more buyers to the site and raising the visibility of Reverb’s sellers.”

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