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eBay Inc. has agreed to pay nearly $50 million to a Massachusetts couple who were sent threats and strange packages by company employees, including live insects, a funeral wreath, and a bloody pig mask, according to settlement details released Tuesday.
The settlement with David and Ina Steiner, founders of EcommerceBytes, a newsletter that covers the e-commerce industry, includes an additional $7 million in charitable donations, including to organizations that support First Amendment rights. Attorney Christopher Murphy stated that the resolution sends 'a warning that attempts by large corporations to suppress free speech and the press will not be tolerated.'
'This was not just an attack and a harassment campaign against two individuals; it was also an attack on free speech and the freedom of the press,' declared Murphy, of the Massachusetts-based Scalli Murphy Law.
The parties reached a tentative agreement in February as the case was heading to trial, but they were unable to finalize it. The Steiners asked a federal judge in June to reopen the case, and a new agreement announced Tuesday resolves the litigation.
The agreement does not contain any confidentiality clauses, allowing the Steiners to speak publicly about the case. Murphy noted that his clients insisted on being able to speak openly about what happened to them.
The settlement ends 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 maintained 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.' The Natick residents, who report on the e-commerce industry in their newsletter, said they were subjected to cyberstalking, death threats, and in-person surveillance by eBay employees.
The agreement also requires eBay to issue a public statement regarding the conduct of the executives involved in the case.
When the lawsuit was filed, the company said that 'the conduct of these former employees was wrong' and that it would 'do what is fair and appropriate to try to address what the Steiners went through.'
eBay reiterated its apology on Tuesday and stated: 'What the Steiners suffered at the hands of former eBay employees in 2019 was wrong, reprehensible, and never should have happened.' The company also acknowledged 'the unprofessional tone in the internal communications' of former CEO Devin Wenig, former chief communications officer Steve Wymer, and former senior vice president Wendy Jones.
The company indicated that such conduct 'is not representative of eBay's culture' and stated that it has since changed leadership and strengthened its ethics policies, procedures, and training.
In 2020, federal prosecutors charged seven former eBay employees, alleging that they carried out a coordinated campaign of harassment against the couple after becoming enraged by their coverage in the newsletter. Most of the defendants pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy and cyberstalking, and were subsequently sentenced to prison time or home confinement.
In 2024, eBay Inc. agreed to pay a $3 million criminal penalty as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with federal authorities.
Federal prosecutors have said the harassment included anonymous deliveries of items such as live cockroaches and spiders, a funeral wreath, and a bloody pig face mask. The employees also sent pornographic magazines in the husband's name to a neighbor's house and planned to break into the couple's garage to install a GPS device on their car.
Under the agreement, the Steiners will receive $48.7 million in compensation, including $46.15 million from eBay, $2 million from Wenig, $500,000 from Jones, and $50,000 from Wymer.
The company will fund $6 million in charitable contributions to various non-profit organizations, and Wenig will contribute an additional $1 million to a charity dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights, in Ina Steiner's name.
In a statement, Murphy cited the recovered amount, the personal payments from former executives, the commitment to donate $7 million to non-profit organizations, and the absence of a confidentiality clause in a system where 'wrongdoers too often hide their misdeeds by offering compensation to those they victimized and trading that compensation for confidentiality or a non-disclosure agreement.'
Protecting journalists and editors and deterring corporate misconduct were goals from the beginning, he noted. 'We believe this resolution sends a clear message that corporations and their executives cannot engage in this type of misconduct without facing significant consequences,' stated Murphy.
[Publicidad]