BOSTON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - EBay has asked a

judge to force the publishers of an e-commerce newsletter to

disclose the identity of their news sources so it can defend

itself against a lawsuit they filed after several of the

company's employees admitted to carrying out a bizarre campaign

to harass and terrorize them.

The e-commerce company in a motion filed on Wednesday in

Boston federal court said it sought the information after David

and Ina Steiner argued they were entitled to more than $12

million in economic damages because the harassment stifled their

ability to report and made would-be news sources fearful of

providing them information.

Seven former eBay workers have pleaded guilty and received

sentences of as high as 57 months in prison for their roles in

an extensive campaign that took place in 2019 that involved

sending the Steiners cockroaches, fly larvae and a bloody

Halloween pig mask and surveilling their home in Natick,

Massachusetts.

Prosecutors say the employees did so after senior executives

deemed the Steiners' newsletter critical of eBay.

The San Jose, California-based company agreed in January to

pay $3 million under a deferred prosecution agreement and has

said it is seeking to settle the civil lawsuit the Steiners

filed.

The company, though, has sought to limit the scope of any

potential damages the Steiners could pursue before any

settlement is struck, and on Wednesday said it needed

information on their sources to investigate their economic

damages claims.

It said the Steiners have refused to disclose any

information about who those would-be sources are, though, citing

"reporter's privilege," a legal doctrine through which reporters

can keep private information about their confidential sources.

"Plaintiffs are free to preserve the confidentiality of

their sources, and they are free to pursue damages based on the

alleged loss of those sources as a result of the Natick events,"

eBay's ( EBAY ) lawyers said. "But Plaintiffs are not free to do both."

EBay called its request "limited," saying it only wanted the

Steiners to reveal the identities of sources that stopped

working with them and that it would be willing to limit any

disclosure to its outside counsel to mitigate their concerns.

The Steiners' attorney did not respond to a request for

comment on Thursday.

EBay has separately asked U.S. District Judge Patti Saris to

decide whether the Steiners are entitled to punitive damages.

Its lawyer, Jack Pirozzolo of Sidley Austin, told Saris in July

that the question had become an issue in settlement talks.

The case is Steiner v. eBay Inc ( EBAY ), U.S. District Court,

District of Massachusetts, No. 21-cv-11181.

For the Steiners: Andrew Finkelstein of Finkelstein &

Partners

For eBay: Jack Pirozzolo of Sidley Austin

Read more:

EBay seeks judge's guidance to settle with victims of

harassment campaign

EBay to pay $3 million penalty over harassment of couple

behind newsletter

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston)