EBay to pay $3M criminal penalty for cyberstalking

EBay cyberstalking overview: 

• Who: EBay agreed to pay a $3 million criminal penalty over charges of harassment and intimidation from 2019. 
• Why: EBay executives were accused of conspiracy to harass and intimidate the publishers of an online newsletter covering the company.
• Where: The eBay cyberstalking charges were filed in federal court in Massachusetts.

EBay agreed to pay a $3 million criminal penalty to settle accusations that executives led a conspiracy to harass, stalk and intimidate the publishers of an online newsletter that covered the company.

EBay entered into a deferred prosecution program on charges of stalking through interstate travel, stalking through electronic communications services, witness tampering and obstruction of justice.

“EBay engaged in absolutely horrific, criminal conduct. The company’s employees and contractors involved in this campaign put the victims through pure hell, in a petrifying campaign aimed at silencing their reporting and protecting the eBay brand,” acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy said in a statement about the eBay cyberstalking accusations.

EBay executives allegedly ran a campaign of harassment against Ina and David Steiner, owners of the EcommerceBytes newsletter, throughout fall 2019.

EBay cyberstalking included sending pig fetus, pornographic magazines

The eBay penalty comes after accusations that it sent items to the Steiners’ home, including everything from a pig fetus and live spiders to a Halloween pig mask. The eBay criminal charges say the group ordered pornographic magazine subscriptions in the Steiners’ name to their neighbors’ homes.

EBay is also accused of posting online advertisements for sexual encounters with the couple, sending people to the Steiners’ home address.

The eBay conspirators “worked together to harass and intimidate the Steiners, and to place them under surveillance with the intent to harass and intimidate them, through repeated and hostile Twitter messages, deliveries of unwanted — and in some instances disturbing — items to the Steiners’ home, and travel to Massachusetts to conduct physical surveillance,” according to the eBay criminal complaint. “The individual defendants’ conduct caused, attempted to cause, and would reasonably have been expected to cause substantial emotional distress to the Steiners.”

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit in New York federal court in October accusing eBay of selling illegal items that range from emission control devices to pesticides that break standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

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