U.S. e-commerce platform eBay and several of its former senior executives will pay $55.7 million to settle a lawsuit. The lawsuit alleged that eBay's management engaged in a systematic campaign of harassment against a couple who ran an e-commerce news blog in 2019.

The harassment included sending live cockroaches, bloody pig masks, and funeral wreaths to the couple's home, as well as posting online invitations for strangers to visit their residence for sexual encounters.

The couple operates the e-commerce news blog Ecommercebytes. According to court documents, eBay executives grew increasingly dissatisfied with the couple's critical reporting on the company. At the time, former CEO Devin Wenig sent a text message to another executive stating he wanted to "crush" the blogger and "take her down." The harassment escalated from threatening messages to physical deliveries, with eBay employees traveling to the couple's state to vandalize their home and conduct surveillance.

In 2023, eBay pleaded guilty to related criminal charges and paid a $3 million fine. Following criminal charges filed in 2020, seven eBay employees received prison sentences ranging from one to five years. In this civil lawsuit, the couple will receive $48.7 million in compensation, eBay will pay $6 million to a charitable organization, and Wenig will pay $1 million to a free speech charity in the blogger's name.

In a statement, eBay acknowledged that the harassment was "wrong, reprehensible, and should never have happened," and admitted that internal communications among executives contained "unprofessional language." Neither the company nor the plaintiff's attorneys commented beyond previous public statements.