David and Ina Steiner, from Massachusetts, have received a huge payout from eBay after they told of being threatened and targeted in a campaign to "intimidate" them21:55, 28 Jul 2026A couple have been paid nearly £37.5million by eBay after claiming former company employees threatened and targeted them with deliveries including insects and a bloody pig Halloween mask.‌The online commerce site agreed the pay out to David and Ina Steiner, from Massachusetts, having reached the basis of a settlement in February as it headed towards trial.‌And now a final agreement has been reached with the Steiners, founders of EcommerceBytes, a newsletter covering the e-commerce industry. The deal includes an additional £5.27 million in charitable donations,‌Lawyer Christopher Murphy said the resolution sends "a warning that attempts by big business to suppress speech and the press will not be tolerated.""This was not only an attack and campaign of harassment against two people; it was also an attack on free speech and freedom of the press," said Murphy. He added that his clients insisted on being able to speak openly about what happened to them in the settlement.It resolves more than six years of criminal and civil proceedings stemming from the harassment campaign.‌In their 2021 lawsuit filed in a Boston court, the Steiners said that the company engaged in a conspiracy to "intimidate, threaten to kill, torture, terrorize, stalk and silence them" in order to "stifle their reporting on eBay."The couple, who report on the e-commerce industry in their newsletter, said they were subjected to cyberstalking, death threats and in-person surveillance by former eBay workers.The settlement also requires eBay to issue a public statement addressing the conduct of former executives involved in the case. When the lawsuit was filed, the company said "the misconduct of these former employees was wrong," and that it would "do what is fair and appropriate to try to address what the Steiners went through."‌And eBay reiterated its apology today, saying, "What the Steiners were subjected to by former eBay employees in 2019 was wrong, reprehensible and should never have happened."The company also accepted "the unprofessional tone in internal communications" by former CEO Devin Wenig, former Chief Communications Officer Steve Wymer and former Senior Vice President Wendy Jones.eBay said the conduct "is not representative of eBay's culture" and said it has since changed leadership and strengthened its policies, procedures and ethics training.‌In 2020, prosecutors charged seven former eBay employees, alleging they carried out a coordinated harassment campaign against the couple after becoming angered by coverage in the couple's online newsletter.Most of the defendants pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy and cyberstalking and were later sentenced to prison terms or home confinement.In 2024, eBay Inc. agreed to pay a $3 million criminal penalty under a deferred prosecution agreement with federal authorities.‌Prosecutors have said the harassment included anonymous deliveries of items like live cockroaches and spiders, a funeral wreath, and a bloody pig face mask to the couple's home.The employees also sent pornographic magazines with the husband's name on them to a neighbour's home and planned to break into the couple's garage to install a GPS device on their car.In a statement, Murphy cited the payout and the absence of a confidentiality provision in a system where "wrongdoers too often hide their misdeeds by dangling compensation in front of those they victimised and trading that compensation for confidentiality".Article continues belowHe added: "We believe this resolution sends a clear message that corporations and their executives cannot engage in this type of misconduct without facing significant consequences."