eBay pays $56M to settle harassment case after executives mailed cockroaches and funeral wreaths to blogger critics

eBay Settles $56M Harassment Lawsuit Over 2019 Campaign Against Blogger Critics

eBay will pay $56 million to settle a civil lawsuit stemming from a coordinated harassment campaign its executives launched against David and Ina Steiner, a couple who ran ecommerce bites, a blog critical of the company's seller policies.

The settlement breaks down as $48 million to the Steiners and $6 million to charitable organizations. Former eBay executive Devin Wenig will separately pay $1 million to a free speech charity.

The campaign

In 2019, after the Steiners published criticism of eBay on their blog—which has given sellers a voice since 1999—eBay executives grew increasingly hostile. According to court documents, Wenig texted another executive that it was time to "crush the Steiners" and "take her down." The harassment escalated from threatening messages to a series of escalating deliveries to their Massachusetts home: a box of live cockroaches, a pig's head mask, a funeral wreath, and a book about surviving spousal bereavement. eBay employees also sent adult magazines to neighbors' homes in the husband's name, vandalized their property, and stalked them around their hometown.

All employees involved were fired in September 2019. Seven eBay employees faced criminal charges in 2020 and were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to five years. eBay pleaded guilty in 2023 and paid a $3 million criminal penalty.

The trigger

The specific criticism that prompted the retaliation remains unclear from the transcript, though one example cited: ecommerce bites published a story about eBay constructing an elaborate Manhattan pub-style lounge at its campus, framed as an expensive executive amenity. The broader pattern suggests the blog was a legitimate seller advocacy outlet, not a fringe operation—enough to provoke what appears to be an extraordinary institutional overreaction.