SOMI and Spirit Legal Announce EU-Wide Class Action Against Snapchat Over Child Protection and GDPR Violations

“The lawsuit targets fundamental flaws of the platform,” SOMI stated during the announcement. According to the foundation, Snap ignores the principle of inherently safe design by shifting safety burdens onto children, parents, and schools rather than eliminating dangers at the product level.

SOMI Legal Standing Across 27 EU Member States

Founded ten years ago initially to investigate market distortions in the Netherlands, the Stichting Onderzoek Marktinformatie gained official recognition as a European representative foundation in May 2024, according to co-founder and board member Hans Franke. Under the European Directive on Representative Actions, SOMI possesses the legal standing to represent citizens across all 27 EU member states. The foundation is partnering with Spirit Legal attorneys Peter Hense, Elisabeth Niekrenz, and Christian Däuble to pursue cross-border enforcement against major technology platforms.

Alleged GDPR, DSA, and AI Act Breaches

Spirit Legal attorney Christian Däuble noted that Snapchat was designated as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) in April 2023, subjecting the company to the strictest provisions of the European Digital Services Act (DSA). Under the DSA, platforms are strictly prohibited from utilizing profiling based on sensitive data for advertising. According to Spirit Legal, Snapchat measures biometric data through facial recognition, deriving emotion and mood values that flow directly into user advertising profiles in violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Attorney Elisabeth Niekrenz emphasized that Snapchat’s monetization relies heavily on processing personal data of individuals under 16, circumventing strict protections mandated under Article 8 of the GDPR. Furthermore, the platform’s proprietary AI chatbot, MyAI, interacts continuously with minors. Niekrenz pointed out that users often treat the chatbot as a private confidant, inadvertently sharing sensitive health statuses, sexual orientations, or political views that Snapchat’s privacy policy permits for contextualizing ads.

Child Safety, Cyber-Grooming, and Regulatory Scrutiny

The lawsuit details severe safety failures, drawing on precedents from regulatory investigations and international litigation. In 2024, the New Mexico Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Snap Inc. that uncovered internal company communications revealing that over 90 percent of account-level safety reports concerning cyber-grooming were ignored, with automated prompts simply telling victims to block the offending accounts. Internal communications also revealed flippant responses from company channels regarding rampant sextortion.

These findings mirror warnings issued by German officials. Germany’s Federal Commissioner for the Protection of Children and Young Persons, Kerstin Claus, accused Snapchat operators of intentionally disregarding child protection standards, noting the app lacks basic age verification and functions as an “eldorado for perpetrators” involved in grooming, drug trafficking, and illicit recruitment.

Objectives of the European Collective Action

SOMI aims to force Snap Inc. to halt unlawful business practices, redesign platform architecture to guarantee youth safety, and secure financial compensation for affected users through Europe’s collective redress framework. Spirit Legal and SOMI have established a dedicated reporting channel at stopsnapchat@somi.nl for users to document and submit evidence of platform violations.