The eBay stalking settlement has closed the final legal chapter on one of the strangest and most menacing corporate scandals in tech history, with eBay and several former executives agreeing to pay a combined $55.7 million in compensation and charitable commitments to Ina and David Steiner, the married couple behind the e-commerce newsletter EcommerceBytes.
The Steiners filed their civil lawsuit in July 2021. Their crime, as far as eBay’s then-leadership was concerned, was occasionally criticising the company in print.
What the eBay Stalking Settlement Actually Covers
The Steiners will receive $48.7 million in direct compensation across all defendants. eBay itself pays the largest share: $46.15 million. Former chief executive Devin Wenig contributes $2 million, former executive Wendy Jones pays $500,000, and former communications executive Steve Wymer pays $50,000.
Beyond those direct payments, eBay has agreed to provide $6 million in charitable donations to non-profit groups, according to Yahoo Finance. Wenig will also separately donate $1 million to a charity dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights, in the name of Ina Steiner, on top of his payment to the couple directly, the New York Times reports.
One detail worth catching: the settlement contains no confidentiality clause. The Steiners are free to discuss everything publicly, and they have. Their own publication, EcommerceBytes, carried the official announcement. A company that tried to silence a newsletter writer ends up funding that writer’s right to talk about it forever.
The Campaign That Made Corporate Misconduct Cases Look Tame
What eBay’s then-executives actually did between 5 and 23 August 2019 reads less like a corporate PR overreaction and more like something from a crime drama. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the harassment campaign included sock-puppet social media accounts, anonymous threatening letters, and packages containing live spiders and cockroaches, pornographic magazines, a bloody pig mask, a funeral wreath, and a book about surviving the death of a spouse. Plans to affix a GPS tracker to the Steiners’ car were attempted but never completed. An internally discussed proposal involved sending a ‘Samoan gang’ to their home.
The Steiners spotted the surveillance team and called local police. Former security chief James Baugh then made false statements to the Natick Police Department, and he and colleagues deleted digital evidence and falsified records to obstruct the investigation.
The internal communications that came to light in a 2024 criminal complaint tell their own story. Wenig texted ‘Take her down’ about Ina Steiner. Former chief communications officer Wymer wrote: ‘I want to see ashes. As long as it takes. Whatever it takes.’ Those are not the messages of executives who thought the newsletter was mildly annoying, per CBS Boston.
Seven former employees were criminally charged and pleaded guilty. Baugh received a sentence of nearly five years. Others convicted include David Harville, Brian Gilbert, Stephanie Popp, Stephanie Stockwell, Philip Cooke, and former contractor Veronica Zea.
In January 2024, eBay itself was charged by the DOJ 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. The company entered a deferred prosecution agreement and paid a criminal penalty of $3 million, which the DOJ noted is the statutory maximum fine for those six felony offences.
The civil case, Steiner v. eBay Inc. (1:21-cv-11181, D. Mass.), was brought under the RICO Act. The Steiners changed litigation counsel in spring 2024, retaining Scalli Murphy Law, Diller Law LLP, Finkelstein & Partners LLP, and Finkelstein, Blankinship, Frei-Pearson & Garber, LLP to lead the civil claim through to settlement.
eBay, in a statement this week, described what happened as ‘wrong, reprehensible and should never have happened,’ and said the conduct was ‘not representative of eBay’s culture.’ The company added: ‘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.’
‘This case was always about more than obtaining financial recovery,’ said Christopher Murphy, one of the Steiners’ attorneys. ‘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.’
That is a reasonable summary of what happened. It is also, given the texts in evidence, a fairly gentle way of putting it. The eBay stalking settlement sets a financial precedent for what organised corporate harassment of a journalist can cost. Any communications executive reading that ‘$55.7 million plus a First Amendment charity donation in your victim’s name’ outcome should probably save the screenshot.
