In 2024, online marketplace eBay was ordered to pay $3 million to resolve criminal charges related to a harassment campaign by its own employees.
The employees had sent live spiders, cockroaches, and other disturbing items to the home of a Massachusetts couple.
The conflict between the couple and eBay employees arose over an online feud.
The incident began in 2019 when an X account posing as an eBay seller started harassing the Steiner couple, who run the e-commerce trade publication EcommerceBytes.
The Steiners were threatened and told to stop reporting on the auction giant.
The harassment campaign escalated after Ina Steiner wrote an article in August 2019 about a lawsuit eBay had filed accusing Amazon of poaching its sellers.
30 minutes after the article was published, eBay's then-CEO Devin Wenig messaged another executive, saying, "If you are ever going to take her down...now is the time."
This message was passed to James Baugh, eBay's senior director of safety and security, who called Ina Steiner a "biased troll who needs to get burned down."
eBay employees sent spiders and cockroaches to the Massachusetts couple.
As the online threats continued, the couple received disturbing packages with live cockroaches, spiders, a bloody pig Halloween mask, and a book called "Grief Diaries: Surviving Loss of a Spouse."
The Steiners also said the company tried to break into their garage to install a GPS device to monitor and discredit them.
Seven eBay employees were eventually convicted of felonies related to the harassment campaign. The ringleader received the harshest sentence of 57 months in federal prison.
In a press release, the Justice Department charged eBay with four counts of corporate stalking, including two through interstate travel and two through electronic communications services.
They were also charged with witness tampering and obstruction of justice.
eBay has been ordered to pay $3M to the couple.
As part of the $3 million settlement, eBay acknowledged the wrongdoing and said it has made changes to ensure this type of behavior does not happen again.
The company cooperated with the investigation and the employees involved were quickly fired.
The couple had initially filed a lawsuit against eBay in July 2021 over the harassment they endured.
In the lawsuit, they accused the company of trying to "intimidate, threaten to kill, torture, terrorize, stalk, and silence them" to stop their critical coverage of eBay.
Previously, people are just learning the real meaning of eBay.
eBay was originally named "AuctionWeb" when it was launched by Pierre Omidyar in September 1995. Omidyar wanted to create an "honest and open marketplace" to connect buyers and sellers worldwide.
The name "eBay" was derived from Omidyar's consulting firm, Echo Bay Technology Group.
However, since the domain name "echobay.com" was already taken by a gold mining company, he shortened it to "eBay.com".
In the early years, AuctionWeb quickly gained popularity and success. By 1996, the total value of merchandise sold on the platform had reached $7.2 million.
The "Beanie Babies craze" in 1996 also contributed significantly to eBay's growth, with Beanie Babies sales accounting for over 6% of the platform's total volume.
In September 1997, AuctionWeb officially changed its name to eBay.
This transformation from a small startup to a global e-commerce giant symbolizes eBay's innovation and success in the online marketplace.
