Couple harassed by eBay employees settle lawsuit against company, ex-CEO

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) - EBay EBAY.O has agreed to settle a lawsuit by a Massachusetts couple who fell victim to a bizarre stalking and harassment campaign several of its employees carried out against them after top executives grew frustrated with a newsletter they published.

The settlement, which was disclosed in an order filed in federal court in Boston on Wednesday, averts a trial that had been set for next week on the multimillion‑dollar claims David and Ina Steiner were pursuing against the e-commerce company and three of its former executives.

Those executives include former CEO Devin Wenig; Steve Wymer, eBay's former chief communications officer; and Wendy Jones, who previously served as senior vice president of global operations.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed in the order issued by U.S. District Judge Patti Saris. The couple had been seeking millions of dollars in compensatory damages plus $466 million in punitive damages, according to a court filing.

The company had no comment beyond the order, but has previously said in court papers that it was committed to compensating the Steiners "fairly and appropriately for the appalling conduct they endured."

Lawyers for the Steiners and the former executives did not respond to requests for comment.

The Steiners sued in 2021 after several former eBay workers were charged over their roles in an extensive harassment campaign against them in 2019 that involved sending the couple cockroaches, fly larvae and a bloody Halloween pig mask.

Several eBay workers traveled from California to Natick, Massachusetts to surveil the Steiners and try to install a GPS tracking device on their car, prosecutors have said.

Seven former eBay workers pleaded guilty and received sentences of as high as 57 months in prison for their roles in the stalking campaign, which prosecutors said was aimed at silencing the Steiners after senior executives deemed their newsletter, EcommerceBytes, critical of the company.

Prosecutors and the Steiners have alleged that the campaign against them began after Wenig in August 2019 texted Wymer that it was time to "take her down," referring to Ina Steiner.

The San Jose, California-based company agreed in 2024 to pay $3 million and enter into a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors.

But the Steiners held off on settling for years. They had called their lawsuit an effort to "ensure that no corporation ever feels that the option exists for them to squash a person's First Amendment rights."

They accused eBay and Wenig and the other former executives of trespass, false imprisonment and violations of the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act and were seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

Wenig, a former Thomson Reuters executive who stepped down as eBay's CEO in September 2019, was never charged. His lawyers argued he had no knowledge or any involvement in the harassment campaign.

The case is Steiner v. eBay Inc, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, No. 21-cv-11181.

For the Steiners: Andrew Finkelstein of Finkelstein & Partners

For eBay: Jack Pirozzolo of Sidley Austin

For Wenig: Abbe Lowell of Lowell & Associates, Kelly Librera of Winston & Straw and Martin Weinberg of Martin G. Weinberg, P.C.

For Jones: Andrew O'Connor of Ropes & Gray

For Wymer: Melissa Mills of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

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