Online marketplace giant eBay is set to cough up a hefty $3 million fine to lay to rest the criminal charges against it after a grotesque harassment campaign waged by its employees. In a disturbing 2019 incident, a Massachusetts couple, who ran a critical newsletter about eBay, found themselves the targets of a bizarre onslaught featuring live spiders, cockroaches, and even a fetal pig, as reported by NBC News.
The company's former employees went to the extreme, sending items like a bloody pig mask and a funeral wreath, levying a campaign of terror to quiet the couple's criticism. eBay, steering through a deferred prosecution agreement that could dismiss the charges provided it adheres to certain conditions was also slapped with charges of criminal stalking, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice, according to the same NBC News report.
In a statement that peeled back the horrors of the campaign, acting Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Josh Levy delineated, "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." This quote was extracted from a report by Fox 10 Phoenix.
The onslaught, catalyzed by a report penned by Ina Steiner on a lawsuit eBay brought against Amazon for seller poaching, spiraled into a nightmare. The Steiners faced harassment that spanned the bizarre and terrifying, including lurid Twitter messages and their address being posted online for fictitious yard sales and parties. eBay has since admitted to the misdeeds of its former staff and, as per eBay's CEO Jamie Iannone, has committed to ameliorating its company culture and ethics to prevent further misconduct.
eBay's pledge came with the assurance that, "The company’s conduct in 2019 was wrong and reprehensible,” and along with the monetary penalty, it entails installing an independent compliance monitor for three years. They vowed to revamp compliance programs to align with the ethics they profess to uphold, according to NBC News.
