EBay’s headquarters are located in San Jose, California.
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E-bay Several former executives also agreed to pay nearly $56 million in a settlement with a Massachusetts couple who were the targets of bizarre harassment and stalking.
Ina Steiner and David Steiner were the targets of a “terrorist campaign” in 2019 “aimed at suppressing coverage,” the Steiners’ lawyers said in a statement. The Steiners run EcommerceBytes, a website closely followed by online sellers, which drew the ire of eBay executives who didn’t like its tone or content.
Communications uncovered in a 2024 criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors show senior eBay executives exchanging messages about Ina Steiner, including one in which former CEO Devin Wennig said, “Get rid of her.”
The couple received a series of online threats and strange deliveries to their home, including live insects, funeral wreaths, bloody pig masks and books about surviving the death of a spouse. In addition, former eBay employees attempted to monitor the couple and install a GPS tracker on their car to monitor their whereabouts.
The settlement resolves a 2021 civil lawsuit and includes payments of approximately $46.1 million from eBay, $2 million from Wenig, $500,000 from eBay’s former senior vice president of operations, and $50,000 from eBay’s former chief communications officer. The company and Wenig also agreed to donate to various nonprofit organizations.
eBay, which was required to issue a statement as part of the agreement, said in a release that the settlement was “the result of an effort to make things right” with the Steiners.
“As we have said for some time, the behavior that the Steiners experienced at the hands of former eBay employees in 2019 was wrong, reprehensible, and should never have happened,” the company said in a statement. “We condemn in the strongest possible terms the employees who committed the misconduct and admitted criminal charges against Mr. Ina and Mr. David Steiner.”
The company said the behavior was “not representative of eBay’s culture” and that it had appointed new leadership and “strengthened our policies, procedures, controls and training” following the incident.
Seven former eBay employees have pleaded guilty to charges related to their roles in the scheme. James Baugh, eBay’s senior director of safety and security, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison.
Wenig is not named in the criminal case. He issued a statement to the Boston Globe saying the harassment was “intentionally conducted in secret and without my knowledge.”
Lawyers for the Steiner family said additional separate settlements have been reached with all other employees named in the civil suit.
