eBay

eBay's security team once tormented a couple who publicly criticized the company — sending them live spiders, a bloody pig mask, and funeral wreaths, among other things — in a scandal so severe it generated a federal criminal case AND a 5-YEAR civil lawsuit. That civil case settled days before a jury trial set to begin March 2, 2026; the terms, made public in July 2026, total $55.7 million — $48.7 million in compensation to David and Ina Steiner ($46.15 million of it from eBay, the rest from former executives Devin Wenig, Wendy Jones and Steve Wymer) plus $7 million in charitable contributions. An earlier draft's February 25, 2026 settlement date and next-day change to eBay's risk committee charter were not verified.

• Severity
• Evidence tierUnassigned
• Claims confirmed
• Last verified2026-08-04

Case status. Private litigation; no sources are on file yet, so no legal tier is assigned.

Primary source. None recorded — Unverified - heuristic first draft.

Arbitration

Binding arbitration confirmed directly from the current User Agreement (effective June 28, 2026 update): requires a MANDATORY 45-day 'Informal Dispute Resolution' notice period before either party can start arbitration or small-claims court; the current agreement also bars 'buy-for-me agents' and 'LLM-driven bots' (and any end-to-end flow that places orders without human review) from accessing the site without eBay's express permission; a prior amendment took effect Feb. 20, 2026, but this pass did not confirm that the arbitration clause itself was expanded to cover AI-agent disputes — a genuinely novel, AI-era update to a legal terms document not seen elsewhere in this tracker.

Contacts

Privacy contact. Not recorded.

Legal notice. PUBLIC COMPANY (EBAY). Service route: c/o General Counsel / Corporate Secretary, San Jose, California — the corporate address on the SEC Form 10-K cover page is the official address of record. Confirm the exact street address on the current 10-K at sec.gov/edgar, and check the state-of-incorporation registered agent (usually Delaware; most large filers use The Corporation Trust Company or Corporation Service Company) via the Secretary of State business-entity search. A registered agent MUST accept service, which is why it is the reliable channel when a company publishes no privacy address.

Mailing address. Not recorded.