eBay has agreed to pay $56 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a Massachusetts couple whom former company executives subjected to a monthslong cyberstalking and harassment campaign in 2019, according to a report from TechCrunch. The settlement resolves a civil case brought by Ina and David Steiner, publishers of the e-commerce trade newsletter EcommerceBytes, against the company they say orchestrated a campaign designed to silence and terrify them.
A Campaign of Fear Disguised as Anonymous Trolling
The harassment began after the Steiners published newsletter coverage that eBay’s leadership considered unfavorable. Prosecutors later determined that a group of eBay employees and contractors, operating with knowledge of senior executives at the company, launched a coordinated scheme to intimidate the couple into silence.
Using anonymous and fake social media accounts, the eBay team sent the Steiners a stream of disturbing deliveries to their Natick, Massachusetts home, including live spiders, cockroaches, a bloody pig Halloween mask, a book about surviving the death of a spouse, and a funeral wreath addressed to David Steiner. Investigators said the group also sent pornographic magazines to the couple’s neighbors under David Steiner’s name and posted fabricated classified ads inviting strangers to their house for sexual encounters.
According to court records from the original criminal case, the harassment escalated further when members of the group traveled to Massachusetts and conducted physical surveillance of the Steiners, at one point discussing plans to install a GPS tracking device on the couple’s car. The campaign left the Steiners fearing for their safety and unable to determine who was targeting them or why, until federal investigators traced the activity back to eBay’s Trust and Safety division.
Criminal Charges and Executive Fallout
The scheme unraveled in 2019 after local police in Massachusetts identified eBay employees purchasing some of the items sent to the couple. Federal prosecutors in Boston subsequently charged multiple former eBay employees and contractors, including the company’s former senior director of safety and security, who prosecutors described as a central figure in organizing the operation.
Several defendants pleaded guilty to charges including cyberstalking and witness tampering, with some sentenced to federal prison time. eBay’s then-CEO, Devin Wenig, resigned in the fall of 2019 amid the fallout, though he was not personally charged. eBay has said the individuals involved were terminated once the company’s internal investigation identified their conduct.
In 2022, eBay separately reached a resolution with the Department of Justice, agreeing to pay a $3 million penalty and comply with enhanced compliance and reporting obligations in exchange for the government declining to pursue criminal charges against the company itself. That agreement, however, did not compensate the Steiners directly, prompting their civil lawsuit against eBay for damages tied to emotional distress, harassment and the disruption of their business.
Terms of the New Settlement
The newly disclosed $56 million settlement closes out that civil litigation. Terms reported by TechCrunch indicate the payment is intended to compensate the Steiners for the psychological toll of the harassment campaign and the years-long legal battle that followed, as well as to cover attorneys’ fees accumulated over the multi-year case.
Attorneys for the Steiners have characterized the case as a rare instance in which a major public company’s own security personnel weaponized corporate resources against private citizens for publishing critical commentary.
eBay has not issued an extensive public statement beyond confirming the settlement, though the company previously said it deeply regretted the actions of the former employees involved and maintained that the conduct violated its own internal policies and code of conduct.
Why the Case Still Resonates
The Steiners’ ordeal has become a frequently cited example in discussions about corporate accountability, whistleblower retaliation and the risks facing journalists and independent publishers who cover powerful companies. Legal experts have noted that the size of the settlement, one of the largest of its kind tied to a corporate harassment scheme, signals the financial exposure companies can face when internal security or communications teams take retaliatory action against critics.
For the Steiners, who continued publishing EcommerceBytes throughout the ordeal and the years of litigation that followed, the settlement marks the formal conclusion of a case that began with an anonymous package of live spiders on their doorstep and ended in a corporate boardroom reckoning nearly seven years later.
