Live cockroaches and a bloody pig mask were among the items sent to a US couple in a harassment campaign allegedly launched by former eBay employees.
Ebay has now agreed to pay about $71 million ($US50 million) in a settlement with the Massachusetts couple, David and Ina Steiner, over the threats and bizarre anonymous deliveries they said they received, according to settlement details.
It all began when the founders of EcommerceBytes shared criticism about the ecommerce giant in their newsletter covering the e-commerce industry.
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“David and I were on the same page that this settlement should and must be made public — as victims who want to prevent something like this from ever happening to anyone else, and as reporters who believe in transparency,” Ina Steiner said on Tuesday.
“We hope that this case will serve as a deterrent.”
The settlement resolves more than six years of criminal and civil proceedings stemming from the harassment campaign.
In their 2021 lawsuit filed in Boston federal court, the Steiners said the company engaged in a conspiracy to “intimidate, threaten to kill, torture, terrorise, stalk and silence them” in order to “stifle their reporting on eBay”.
They said they were subjected to cyberstalking, death threats and in-person surveillance by former eBay workers.
Ina Steiner said the campaign began with threatening direct messages on social media before escalating into anonymous deliveries of live cockroaches and spiders, a funeral wreath, a bloody pig Halloween mask and a book about surviving the death of a spouse.
The eBay employees also sent pornographic magazines with David Steiner’s name to a neighbour’s home and planned to install a GPS device on the couple’s car.
The parties reported reaching a tentative settlement in February as the case was headed to trial, but they were unable to finalise it. David and Ina Steiner asked a federal judge in June to restore the case to the trial calendar before reaching a new settlement this month.
The agreement with the Steiners includes an additional $10 million ($US7 million) in charitable donations, including to organisations supporting First Amendment rights.
The settlement also contains no confidentiality provision, allowing the Steiners to discuss the case publicly.
Escalating pressure
When the threats and packages began to arrive, Ina said she did not initially know who was behind it or why.
“I could not conceive that a company I had been covering for the past two decades had tried to terrorise us into stopping our reporting,” she said.
When the lawsuit was filed, the company said “the misconduct of these former employees was wrong” and that it would “do what is fair and appropriate to try to address what the Steiners went through”.
EBay reiterated its apology on Tuesday, saying: “What the Steiners were subjected to by former eBay employees in 2019 was wrong, reprehensible and should never have happened.”
The company also acknowledged “the unprofessional tone in internal communications” by former CEO Devin Wenig, former .chief communications officer Steve Wymer and former senior vice president Wendy Jones.
The company said the conduct “is not representative of eBay’s culture” and said it has since changed leadership and strengthened its policies, procedures and ethics training.
In 2020, federal prosecutors charged seven former eBay employees, alleging they carried out a co-ordinated harassment campaign against the couple after becoming angered by coverage in the couple’s online newsletter.
Most of the defendants pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy and cyberstalking and were later sentenced to prison terms or home confinement.
In 2024, eBay Inc. agreed to pay $4.27 million ($US3 million) criminal penalty under a deferred prosecution agreement with federal authorities.
A ‘painful, life-changing experience’
Under the settlement, the Steiners will receive $69.35 million ($US48.7 million) in compensation, including $65.72 million ($US46.15 million) from eBay, $2.85 million ($US2 million) from former CEO Wenig, $500,000 from former executive Jones and $71,000 ($US50,000) from former executive Wymer.
The company will fund $8.54 million ($US6 million) in charitable contributions to various non-profit organisations, with Wenig contributing an additional $1.42 million ($US1 million) to a charity dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights in Ina Steiner’s name.
In a statement, Steiner lawyer Christopher Murphy cited the recovery amount, personal payments by former executives, a commitment for $9.97 million ($US7 million) to go to non-profits and the absence of a confidentiality provision in a system where “wrongdoers too often hide their misdeeds by dangling compensation in front of those they victimised and trading that compensation for confidentiality or an NDA”.
Protecting journalists and publishers and deterring corporate misconduct were goals from the beginning, he said.
“We believe this resolution sends a clear message that corporations and their executives cannot engage in this type of misconduct without facing significant consequences,” said Murphy, of Massachusetts-based Scalli Murphy Law.
Ina Steiner said she and her husband hope that “some good will come out of this painful, life-changing experience”.
