Etsy Inc (ETSY) Updates Legal Terms, Grows Ireland Subsidiary Ahead Of Q2 Earnings

Etsy has done some renaming, reorganizing and rewriting. The online craft marketplace updated the language of its terms of service and added new legal policies, the Brooklyn, New York company announced in a blog post and email to users Wednesday.

Among the changes, Etsy (NASDAQ:ETSY) introduced a new section of the site called "Our House Rules," which divides the legal policies for the buyers, sellers and third-party developers. Each of these sections has been rewritten on more plain language but have not been significantly altered. For example, the Terms of Use now refers to "user content" as "your content."

The update comes ahead of tumultous market time for Etsy. Etsy missed the expected earnings on its first-quarter results in May. Etsy's stock fell to 18 percent in after-hours trading after the May announcement and dropped to 23 percent the day after. That plunge led to the company losing about half of its value since going public in April.

The global site, with 1.4 million active sellers and 20.8 million active buyers as of May 2015, is now looking to gain the praise from the Wall Street investors it three months ago failed to impress. Etsy will announce its second-quarter earnings report on Aug. 4.

Etsy altered some policies such as adjusting the contracts of Etsy sellers. Sellers and buyers living in North America and South America will continue having contracts with Etsy, Inc., based in Brooklyn, New York. But now, a user in living in any other country with contract through Etsy Ireland, a company subsidiary.

"You won’t notice any difference in our services," Etsy attorney Hissan Bajwa wrote in the blog update. "We made this change to reflect the international nature of our business."

Ertsy also translated their policies into French, German, Italian, Spanish and Dutch.

Etsy added policy sections to explain members' rights, including a "Requests for Information Policy" and a "Direct Checkout Policy. "Etsy aims to be transparent and mindful as we reimagine commerce to build a more fulfilling and lasting world," the update reads. However, Etsy clarifies that the company "reserves the right to deviate from these practices at any time."