The scandal involved the aggressive stalking and harassment of two e-commerce bloggers, Ina and David Steiner, who wrote frequent commentary about eBay on their website EcommerceBytes.
In the years after its founding, the website became a resource for sellers on a number of platforms, from Etsy to Amazon, a kind of trade publication for anyone whose business is selling items online.
They sent a letter to its board of directors requesting changes, such as replacing the CEO,[6] saying that eBay "as a public-company investment has underperformed both its peers and the market for a prolonged period of time."
This was interpreted as placing additional demands on eBay management to produce results, leading to an atmosphere of heightened stress throughout the company.
"[6] Wymer allegedly took the concerns to the head of eBay's security division, Jim Baugh, whose team began harassing the Steiners at home and online.
"[8][9] The Steiners were harassed and threatened both online and physically in their home by deliveries of such things as a bloody pig mask, live cockroaches and spiders, a funeral wreath, and large orders of pizza.
[5][1][6] Employees flew from California to Boston so they could vandalize the couple's Natick, Massachusetts home as well as stalk their personal vehicle.
In July 2021, Ina and David Steiner filed suit against eBay Inc.; former CEO Devin Wenig; former Chief Communications Officer Steve Wymer; the seven defendants in the criminal case; and Progressive F.O.R.C.E.
[22] eBay's former SVP Global Operations Wendy Jones and Progressive F.O.R.C.E Concepts' CEO Steve Krystek were also added to an amended version of the complaint on March 1, 2023.