MA Couple's eBay Harassment Lawsuit To Move Forward

BOSTON, MA — The lawsuit filed by a Natick couple against eBay and former executives of the company is set to move forward, though with certain changes, a federal judge ruled recently.

U.S. District Judge Patti Saris narrowed the case brought forward by David and Ina Steiner — a move she hinted at in August — by dismissing stalking and assault claims against several defendants, Reuters reported.

The Steiner's federal lawsuit against eBay accuses the company of engaging in a conspiracy to "intimidate, threaten to kill, torture, terrorize, stalk and silence them" in order to "stifle their reporting on eBay."

In total, seven people have been criminally charged for the plot, including two company executives.

Saris rejected a motion by former eBay CEO Devin Wenig and two other executives to dismiss claims of negligence and that they caused emotional distress for the Steiner family. Motions that they were negligent in their supervision of employees prosecuted for their roles in the cyberstalking campaign were also rejected, Reuters reported.

The charges were filed against members of the company for harassing the Steiners, who operate the ecommerce newsletter Ecommercebytes. The newsletter was critical of eBay, which prosecutors said miffed the company executives and others, leading to this plot.

"It is alleged that in August 2019, after the newsletter published an article about litigation involving eBay, two members of eBay’s executive leadership team sent or forwarded text messages suggesting that it was time to 'take down' the newsletter’s editor," federal prosecutors said when six employees were indicted in June 2020.

The scheme involved "anonymous and profane demands that the couple stop reporting about eBay; the publication of their home address on Twitter and threats to visit them there; the delivery of live insects and a funeral wreath; Craigslist posts inviting all comers to sexual encounters at their home; a black van that followed the husband as he drove around Natick, and so much more," federal prosecutors said in court documents.

James Baugh, of San Jose, Calif., eBay’s former Senior Director of Safety & Security, was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison and a $40,000 fine; David Harville, of New York City, eBay’s former Director of Global Resiliency, was sentenced to two years in federal prison and a $20,000 fine.

Baugh and Harville are said to have organized the plot.

The recent ruling sets the case up to proceed against a majority of the 13 defendants, and it could go to trail in the spring of 2025.

That all could change, however, as settlement talks are said to have happened.

The company is also said to have already set aside $64 million to cover liability stemming from the lawsuit, a potential settlement with the Department of Justice and other, unrelated costs.