eBay and some former executives have agreed to pay the pair $56m (£42m) after a harassment campaign in retaliation for their online criticism of the company.

In a statement Tuesday, David and Ina Steiner said they and eBay had reached an agreement stemming from harassment they faced in 2019 from several company executives, as well as internal communications from eBay’s then-CEO.

The Steiners ran a website and newsletter EcommerceBytes that sometimes criticized eBay.

A group of now-former company executives eventually pleaded guilty to sending the couple a costume mask covered in pig’s blood, a book about surviving the death of a spouse, among other threatening actions.

Other actions, external The attacks against the Steiners included eBay executives sending them a funeral wreath and harassing messages on Twitter (the social media platform now known as X). Some even visited the couple’s Massachusetts home in an attempt to install a tracking device in their car.

Seven former eBay executives plead guilty, external to criminal charges between 2022 and 2024, according to the United States Department of Justice.

An FBI agent involved in the investigation said in 2024 that the former executives’ actions were an “unprecedented, relentless and over-the-top campaign of harassment.”

eBay was also criminally charged and entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice and agreed to pay a $3 million fine.

While eBay pays the couple most of the settlement, including $6 million to “various nonprofit organizations,” Wenig personally pays $1 million toward the settlement.

Wenig left eBay in 2019. The same year, he sent eBay’s top communications executive a text message about Ina Steiner that said, “Put her down.”

A representative for Wenig said Tuesday that earlier proceedings in Steiner’s lawsuit explained that her writing referred to a public relations strategy to combat alleged errors in Ina Steiner’s writing.

Wenig added: “No one should have been subjected to what the Steiners endured in 2019, and it saddens me, especially since it occurred during my time as CEO of eBay. The harassment was deliberately done in secret.”

Their contribution will go to an unnamed charity that is “dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights” and will be donated in Ina Steiner’s name, according to the couple’s attorneys.

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the right to free speech.

Christopher Murphy of Scalli Murphy Law PC, who represented the Steiners in the case, said Tuesday: “We believe this resolution sends a clear message that corporations and their executives cannot engage in this type of misconduct without facing significant consequences.”

eBay said: “What the Steiners were subjected to by former eBay employees in 2019 was wrong, reprehensible and should never have happened.”

The company condemned the former employees who ultimately pleaded guilty to the criminal charges that led to the civil suit, and admitted to an “unprofessional tone in internal communications” on the part of Wenig and other former executives.

“This settlement is consistent with our commitment to fairly compensate the Steiners and meets our efforts to make things right,” eBay said Tuesday.