eBay agreed to pay nearly $50 million to Ina and David Steiner, who were targeted with threats, surveillance and disturbing deliveries by former company employees. eBay agreed to pay Ina and David Steiner nearly $50 million to settle their civil lawsuit over a 2019 harassment campaign. The Massachusetts couple published an online newsletter covering the e-commerce industry and had written material critical of eBay.
Former eBay employees sent or arranged deliveries including live insects, a funeral wreath and a bloody pig mask, and conducted surveillance near the couple's home. Several former employees were convicted or pleaded guilty in federal criminal cases connected to the campaign.
The company had previously entered a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department and agreed to pay a $3 million criminal penalty. The civil settlement resolves the couple's claims against eBay but does not erase the individual criminal judgments or the historical record of the conduct.
Civil damages can compensate victims and penalize misconduct, while criminal cases determine individual guilt under a different burden of proof. The campaign exposed failures in executive oversight, employee controls and escalation mechanisms at a large technology marketplace.
A settlement is not a trial verdict on every disputed civil allegation, although the related criminal cases established extensive underlying conduct. As of the edition cutoff, The agreement's complete nonfinancial terms and any continuing internal compliance measures were not detailed in the first public account. The available reports distinguish measurements and attributed claims from conclusions that had not yet been established. Where officials supplied numbers, those figures remain subject to revision as agencies reconcile records and publish later updates. Subsequent records may therefore change the totals without changing the initial chronology. The next factual records to examine are court filing and approval of the settlement terms and eBay disclosures about compliance, oversight and remaining litigation.