// THE VERGE — LINUX & OPEN SOURCE
eBay’s bizarre cyberstalking saga ends with a $56 million settlement
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A group of now-former executives sent live insects, a bloody pig mask, and a funeral wreath to a couple who covered eBay in a newsletter.
A group of now-former executives sent live insects, a bloody pig mask, and a funeral wreath to a couple who covered eBay in a newsletter.
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eBay and three former executives will pay $55.7 million as part of a settlement with a Massachusetts couple targeted with a bizarre harassment and cyberstalking campaign in 2019, as reported earlier by CNBC. The settlement will resolve a lengthy legal saga that revealed how eBay’s former executives sent live insects, a bloody pig mask, a funeral wreath, and other strange items to David and Ina Steiner over their newsletter’s coverage of eBay.
The Steiners, who operate the EcommerceBytes newsletter, sued eBay and its former executives — including ex-CEO Devin Wenig — in 2021. The lawsuit accused the company and its executives of launching a coordinated effort to “intimidate, threaten to kill, torture, terrorize, stalk and silence” the Steiners in an attempt to “stifle” their eBay-related reporting.
The Department of Justice charged seven former eBay employees in connection with the harassment campaign in 2020, all of whom have been convicted. eBay agreed to pay a $3 million criminal penalty related to the case in 2024.