eBay and three of its former senior executives have reportedly agreed to pay $55.7m (£41.8m) to settle a lawsuit brought by two ecommerce publishers who were targeted in a stalking and intimidation campaign by company employees.
David and Ina Steiner, who publish the EcommerceBytes newsletter, filed the case against the online marketplace in 2021 after being subjected to threatening messages, surveillance and a series of disturbing deliveries to their Massachusetts home.
The settlement brings to a close one of the most damaging corporate scandals in eBay’s history, which began after senior figures at the retailer became frustrated with EcommerceBytes’ coverage of the company and comments posted by its readers.
Under the agreement, eBay will pay the Steiners £34.66million and provide a further £4.51million to nonprofit organisations.
Former eBay chief executive Devin Wenig will pay the couple £1.5million and donate another £751,000 to a charity protecting First Amendment rights in Ina Steiner’s name.
Former senior vice-president of global operations Wendy Jones will pay the Steiners £375,000, while former chief communications officer Steve Wymer will contribute £37,500.
The payments mean the Steiners will receive a combined £36.57million, while total charitable donations connected with the agreement will reach £5.26million. Separate settlements were also reached with the other former eBay employees named in the lawsuit, although their terms were not disclosed.
Harassment campaign aimed to silence critical coverage
The campaign took place during August 2019 and was intended to intimidate the Steiners into changing the tone and content of their reporting about eBay.
Former members of the retailer’s security operation sent anonymous packages to the couple’s home containing live cockroaches, fly larvae, a bloody pig mask, a funeral wreath and a book about coping with the death of a spouse.
The harassment also included threatening social media messages, false online advertisements inviting strangers to the Steiners’ home and the delivery of pornographic material to a neighbour using David Steiner’s name.
Several employees travelled from California to Massachusetts to watch the couple and attempted to place a GPS tracking device on their car.
The Steiners noticed they were being followed and contacted local police. Members of the security team subsequently deleted digital evidence, falsified records and provided investigators with misleading information in an attempt to conceal eBay’s involvement.
Prosecutors said the operation followed growing frustration among senior eBay executives over the EcommerceBytes newsletter, which covers issues affecting online marketplace sellers.
In August 2019, Wenig sent Wymer a message saying it was time to “take her down”, referring to Ina Steiner. Wenig was never criminally charged and has maintained that he did not know about or participate in the harassment campaign.
His lawyers have said the message referred to a proposed public relations response to the newsletter’s coverage rather than an instruction to engage in illegal activity.
Wenig said no one should have been subjected to the treatment experienced by the Steiners and described the conduct as contrary to his personal beliefs.
Seven former workers convicted
Seven former eBay employees and contractors pleaded guilty to criminal charges arising from the campaign, with sentences ranging from home confinement to 57 months in prison.
They included former senior director of safety and security Jim Baugh, who was described by prosecutors as the operation’s ringleader and received the longest sentence.
Other convicted employees included eBay’s former director of global resiliency and several senior figures from its security and intelligence teams.
eBay itself was criminally charged in 2024 with six felony offences, including stalking through interstate travel, stalking using electronic communications, witness tampering and obstruction of justice.
The company admitted to a detailed account of the conduct and agreed to pay a £2.25million criminal penalty, the maximum fine available for the offences.
It was also required to appoint an independent corporate compliance monitor for three years and introduce extensive changes to its ethics and compliance programme.
Responding to the civil settlement, eBay described what happened to the Steiners as “wrong, reprehensible and should never have happened”.
The company apologised again to the couple and said the agreement reflected its commitment to compensating them fairly and addressing the damage caused by the actions of its former employees.
The Steiners’ lawyer Christopher Murphy said the outcome demonstrated that companies and their senior executives could face significant consequences for misconduct directed at journalists and publishers.
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