eBay Inc. has agreed to pay USD$55.7 million in compensation and charitable commitments in a civil litigation brought by a couple, who claimed former employees of the company targeted them with threats and anonymous deliveries — including live insects, a funeral wreath and a bloody pig Halloween mask.

Seven years after eBay security personnel harassed David and Ina Steiner, who are Massachusetts e-commerce bloggers, the company and three former executives agreed to pay to settle their claims.

The parties reported reaching a tentative settlement in February as the case was headed to trial, but they were unable to finalize it. David and Ina Steiner asked a federal judge in June to restore the case to the trial calendar and reached a new settlement this month.

The agreement with the Steiners, founders of EcommerceBytes, a newsletter covering the e-commerce industry, includes an additional $7 million in charitable donations, including to organizations supporting First Amendment rights. The settlement contains no confidentiality provision, allowing the Steiners to discuss the case publicly.

The couple announced the terms on their website on Monday night, writing, “The settlement follows over six years of criminal and civil proceedings. In addition to substantial compensation for the plaintiffs, the resolution includes significant charitable commitments, personal financial contributions from former eBay executives, a public statement by eBay, and no confidentiality restrictions.”

eBay released a statement on Tuesday, acknowledging the deal, writing, “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,” the statement continued.

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“We also acknowledge the unprofessional tone in internal communications demonstrated, to different degrees and number, by Mr. Wenig, Mr. Wymer, and Ms. Jones.”

The company said that it continues to extend its “deepest apologies to the Steiners.”

“This agreement is consistent with our commitment to fairly compensate the Steiners and fulfills our efforts to make things right,” the company added.

“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 statement concluded.

According to a press release from the Steiners’ lawyers, Scalli Murphy Law, the couple will receive $48.7 million in compensation, including $46.15 million from eBay, $2 million from former eBay executive CEO Devin Wenig, $500,000 from former eBay executive Wendy Jones and $50,000 from former eBay executive Steve Wymer.

“eBay will fund $6 million in charitable contributions to various nonprofit organizations. Former eBay executive CEO Devin Wenig will contribute an additional $1 million to a charity dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights in the name of Ina Steiner,” the press release added.

The settlement contains no confidentiality provision, allowing the Steiners to publicly discuss the facts of the case and its resolution, according to their lawyers.

“eBay itself was also criminally charged and entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, agreeing to pay the maximum available criminal fine of $3 million and undertake serious corrective action,” according to the press release.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts, eBay’s admissions claimed that between approximately Aug. 5, 2019 and Aug. 23, 2019, Jim Baugh, eBay’s former Senior Director of Safety and Security, and six other members of eBay’s security team targeted the Steiners for their roles in publishing a newsletter that reported on issues of interest to eBay sellers.

“Senior executives at eBay were frustrated with the newsletter’s tone and content, and with the comments posted beneath the newsletter’s articles. The harassment campaign arose from communications between those executives and Baugh,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts said in a press release.

The settlement resolves more than six years of criminal and civil proceedings stemming from the harassment campaign. In their 2021 lawsuit filed in Boston federal court, the Steiners said that the company engaged in a conspiracy to “intimidate, threaten to kill, torture, terrorize, stalk and silence them” in order to “stifle their reporting on eBay.”

Ina Steiner said the campaign began with threatening direct messages on social media before escalating into anonymous deliveries of live cockroaches and spiders, a funeral wreath, a bloody pig Halloween mask and a book about surviving the death of a spouse.

The harassment also featured Craigslist posts inviting the public for sexual encounters at the victims’ home.

In 2020, federal prosecutors charged seven former eBay employees, alleging they carried out a coordinated harassment campaign against the couple after becoming angered by coverage in the couple’s online newsletter. Most of the defendants pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy and cyberstalking and were later sentenced to prison terms or home confinement.

In 2024, eBay Inc. agreed to pay a $3 million criminal penalty under a deferred prosecution agreement with federal authorities.

eBay was charged criminally with two counts of stalking through interstate travel, two counts of stalking through electronic communications services, one count of witness tampering and one count of obstruction of justice and has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts.

“eBay engaged in absolutely horrific, criminal conduct. The company’s employees and contractors involved in this campaign put the victims through pure hell, in a petrifying campaign aimed at silencing their reporting and protecting the eBay brand,” said Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy.

“We left no stone unturned in our mission to hold accountable every individual who turned the victims’ world upside-down through a never-ending nightmare of menacing and criminal acts. The investigation led to felony convictions for seven individuals, all former eBay employees or contractors, and the ringleader was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison,” Levy added.

“The corporate monitoring of eBay will be in place for the next three years and will ensure that eBay’s senior leadership sets a tone that makes compliance with the law paramount, implements safeguards to prevent future criminal activity, and makes clear to every eBay employee that the idea of terrorizing innocent people and obstructing investigations will not be tolerated,” Levy’s statement concluded.

—with files from The Associated Press