eBay and several former executives have agreed to pay $55.7m to settle a civil lawsuit brought by Ina and David Steiner over a 2019 harassment campaign.
Operators of the EcommerceBytes news site, the Steiners were targeted by former eBay employees in what their lawyers at Scalli Murphy Law described as a “terror campaign” intended to stop their reporting.
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The agreement concludes more than six years of criminal and civil proceedings.
The Steiners filed their case in Boston federal court in 2021, after criminal prosecutions involving several former eBay employees over a scheme that included sending the couple cockroaches, fly larvae and a bloody Halloween pig mask.
“We believe this resolution sends a clear message that corporations and their executives cannot engage in this type of misconduct without facing significant consequences”, Christopher Murphy, the Steiners’ attorney, said in a statement.
Under the settlement, the Steiners are to receive $48.7m in total compensation.
Of that amount, eBay will pay $46.15m.
Former chief executive Devin Wenig will pay $2m, former executive Wendy Jones will pay $500,000, and former executive Steve Wymer will pay $50,000.
In addition to the direct compensation, eBay has agreed to provide $6m in charitable donations to non-profit groups.
Wenig will also make a separate $1m donation to an organisation that supports First Amendment rights, with the gift to be made in Ina Steiner’s name.
The agreement also required eBay to issue a public statement covering the conduct of Wenig, Wymer and Jones in connection with events in Natick, Massachusetts, and the wider culture at the company in 2019.
In a statement, eBay said: “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.
“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. We also acknowledge the unprofessional tone in internal communications demonstrated, to different degrees and number, by Mr Wenig, Mr Wymer, and Ms Jones.”
The settlement does not include a confidentiality clause, allowing the Steiners to speak publicly about the case and the outcome.
Separate settlements were also reached with other eBay employees named as defendants in the civil case.
All pleaded guilty to charges linked to the harassment campaign.
The agreement comes amid a period of wider corporate developments at eBay.
In May, GameStop proposed an unsolicited and non-binding offer to acquire eBay in a cash-and-stock deal valued at approximately $55.5bn, pitched at $125 per share.
eBay’s board turned down the proposal that same month, calling it “neither credible nor attractive”.
