New Delhi: A stalking and harassment campaign against two journalists has cost eBay and its former executives $55.7 million. The former staff of the e-commerce company stalked and harassed the Massachusetts couple, including sending them live insects and a bloody pig mask, for their critical coverage of the firm.
The case dates back to 2019 when the journalist couple, David and Ina Steiner, irked eBay executives, who didn’t like the tone and content of their reporting on the company. The two run a website called EcommerceBytes, which covers e-commerce and online merchants.
Following this, eBay executives launched a “terror campaign” against the couple “designed to stop their reporting”, according to Scalli Murphy Law, which represented the couple in the case.
The law firm announced in a press release on 27 July that a settlement had been reached between the couple and eBay and its former staff. As part of it, the couple will receive a total of $48.7 million, including $46.15 million from eBay, $2 million from former CEO Devin Wenig, $500,000 from former executive Wendy Jones, and $50,000 from another former executive Steve Wymer.
eBay will also pay an additional $6 million in charitable contributions to non-profits while Wenig will give $1 million to a charity “dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights in the name of Ina Steiner”.
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‘Disturbing deliveries’
The US Department of Justice said in January 2023 that eBay admitted targeting the couple and that the harassment began in August 2019 after an exchange between eBay’s senior executives and its former Senior Director of Safety and Security, Jim Baugh.
“Baugh and his co-conspirators executed a harassment campaign intended to intimidate the victims and to change the content of the newsletter’s reporting,” the DOJ said.
As part of their campaign, the executives sent “anonymous and disturbing deliveries” to the couple’s home, including a fetal pig, a book on surviving the death of a spouse, live insects, a bloody pig mask, and a funeral wreath. The journalists were also sent private messages on X while the employees also threatened to visit them. The staff also travelled to the couple’s residence to install a GPS tracking device on their car.
The couple spotted the stalkers and contacted the local police.
Between 2022 and 2024, seven former eBay executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges while the e-commerce company agreed to pay $3 million after being charged with several counts of stalking, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice and entering into a deferred prosecution agreement.
“As we have long stated, what the Steiners were subjected to by former eBay employees in 2019 was wrong, reprehensible and should never have happened,” eBay said in a statement on 28 July. “We condemn, in the strongest terms possible, the employees who perpetrated and pled guilty to criminal charges for the misconduct against Ina and David Steiner.”
“The 2019 conduct is not representative of eBay’s culture or thousands of employees around the world today,” the company added.