It sure took forever to resolve this. - d. ---
๐๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ๐ด๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐๐ฝ๐น๐ฒ $๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐บ๐ถ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ฎ๐ณ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฏ๐น๐ผ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ ๐ฝ๐ถ๐ด ๐บ๐ฎ๐๐ธ ๐โ๐ ๐๐๐ข๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฆ๐๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐กโ ๐กโ๐๐๐๐ก๐ , ๐๐๐ ๐๐-๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐ข๐๐ฃ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฆ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ต๐๐ฆ ๐ค๐๐๐๐๐๐ By Leah Willingham, Tuesday 28 July 2026 BOSTON (AP) โ eBay Inc. agreed to pay almost $50 million to a Massachusetts couple who said former employees of the company targeted them with threats and bizarre anonymous deliveries โ including live insects, a funeral wreath and a bloody pig Halloween mask, according to settlement details released Tuesday. The parties reported reaching a tentative settlement in February as the case was headed to trial, but they were unable to finalize it. David and Ina Steiner asked a federal judge in June to restore the case to the trial calendar and reached a new settlement this month. The agreement with the Steiners, founders of EcommerceBytes, a newsletter covering the e-commerce industry, includes an additional $7 million in charitable donations, including to organizations supporting First Amendment rights. The settlement contains no confidentiality provision, allowing the Steiners to discuss the case publicly. โDavid and I were on the same page that this settlement should and must be made public โ as victims who want to prevent something like this from ever happening to anyone else, and as reporters who believe in transparency,โ Ina Steiner said Tuesday in an email response to questions from The Associated Press. โWe hope that this case will serve as a deterrent.โ The settlement resolves more than six years of criminal and civil proceedings stemming from the harassment campaign. In their 2021 lawsuit filed in Boston federal court, the Steiners said that the company engaged in a conspiracy to โintimidate, threaten to kill, torture, terrorize, stalk and silence themโ in order to โstifle their reporting on eBay.โ The Natick residents, 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. ๐๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐ฟ๐ฒ Ina Steiner said the campaign began with threatening direct messages on social media before escalating into anonymous deliveries of live cockroaches and spiders, a funeral wreath, a bloody pig Halloween mask and a book about surviving the death of a spouse. The employees also sent pornographic magazines with David Steinerโs name to a neighborโs home and planned to install a GPS device on the coupleโs car. She said she did not initially know who was behind it or why. โI could not conceive that a company I had been covering for the past two decades had tried to terrorize us into stopping our reporting,โ she said. When the lawsuit was filed, the company said โthe misconduct of these former employees was wrong,โ and that it would โdo what is fair and appropriate to try to address what the Steiners went through.โ eBay reiterated its apology Tuesday, saying, โWhat the Steiners were subjected to by former eBay employees in 2019 was wrong, reprehensible and should never have happened.โ The company also acknowledged โthe unprofessional tone in internal communicationsโ by former CEO Devin Wenig, former Chief Communications Officer Steve Wymer and former Senior Vice President Wendy Jones. The company said the conduct โis not representative of eBayโs cultureโ and said it has since changed leadership and strengthened its policies, procedures and ethics training. In 2020, federal prosecutors charged seven former eBay employees, alleging they carried out a coordinated harassment campaign against the couple after becoming angered by coverage in the coupleโs 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. ๐ โ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป๐ณ๐๐น, ๐น๐ถ๐ณ๐ฒ-๐ฐ๐ต๐ฎ๐ป๐ด๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒโ Under the settlement, the Steiners will receive $48.7 million in compensation, including $46.15 million from eBay, $2 million from former CEO Wenig, $500,000 from former executive Jones and $50,000 from former executive Wymer. The company will fund $6 million in charitable contributions to various nonprofit organizations, with Wenig contributing an additional $1 million to a charity dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights in Ina Steinerโs name. In a statement, Steiner attorney Christopher Murphy cited the recovery amount, personal payments by former executives, a commitment for $7 million to go to nonprofits and the absence of a confidentiality provision in a system where โwrongdoers too often hide their misdeeds by dangling compensation in front of those they victimized and trading that compensation for confidentiality or an NDA.โ Protecting journalists and publishers and deterring corporate misconduct were goals from the beginning, he said. โWe believe this resolution sends a clear message that corporations and their executives cannot engage in this type of misconduct without facing significant consequences,โ said Murphy, of Massachusetts-based Scalli Murphy Law. Ina Steiner said she and her husband hoped that โsome good will come out of this painful, life-changing experience.โ https://apnews.com/article/ebay-settlement-d0886f1036e198f77669707db9fe1f2b https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/ebay-settlement-david-ina-steiner-ecommercebytes-newsletter-b3023310.html Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
