E-commerce website eBay and a group of its former executives will pay roughly $56 million to settle a lawsuit, six years after the company engaged in a campaign to physically and psychologically torment a journalist couple, hoping to stop them from posting critical pieces.
Back in 2019, a group of top eBay executives set up a deranged scheme to torment Ina and David Steiner, a couple who penned critical pieces about eBay’s business practices on their news site EcommerceBytes. Led by eBay’s head of security, James Baugh, the executives cyberstalked the couple, sending threats, and also surveilled the couple in real life and conspired to plant a GPS tracking device. The torment also included mailing them live spiders and cockroaches, a funeral wreath, a copy of a book called “Grief Diaries: Surviving Loss of a Spouse,” and a bloody pig mask.
The couple brought legal action against the executives in 2021. Seven employees have since pleaded guilty, and several of them, including Baugh, were sentenced to jail time. In 2024, eBay was also criminally charged and fined $3 million.
But several high-ranking executives have maintained their innocence. Former CEO Devin Wenig, who said that “now is the time” to take down Ina Steiner, told the Boston Globe that the harassment campaign was done without his knowledge. Also, per communications revealed in the lawsuit, former senior vice president of global operations Wendy Jones told Baugh to deal with the couple “off the radar” without sharing the details, while ex-communications chief Steve Wymer referred to Ina Steiner as “a biased troll who needs to get BURNED DOWN.”
Under the settlement unveiled this week, the Steiners will receive $48.7 million in compensation, the bulk of it from eBay. The e-commerce company will pay the couple $46.15 million and will contribute another $6 million to various nonprofit organizations.
“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. “The 2019 conduct is not representative of eBay’s culture or thousands of employees around the world today. Since these events occurred, new leaders have joined the company and eBay has strengthened its policies, procedures, controls and training consistent with the company’s ongoing commitment to uphold high standards of conduct and ethics.”
The court also ordered former CEO Wenig to pay the couple $2 million and make an additional $1 million donation in Ina Steiner’s name to a charity dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights. Jones and Wymer will also pay $500,000 each to the couple. The prosecution also said that additional settlements were reached with all the other eBay employees mentioned in the civil lawsuit.
“From the beginning, our clients wanted to uncover the truth, protect journalists and publishers, hold those responsible accountable, deter future corporate misconduct, and help ensure others would never have to endure what they experienced,” the Steiners’ attorney Christopher Murphy said in a press release. “We believe this resolution sends a clear message that corporations and their executives cannot engage in this type of misconduct without facing significant consequences.”
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