Newsletter SOMI - August 18th, 2025
This is the newsletter for August 2025 from the Foundation for Market Information Research to its relations, including the participants in its actions, its sympathizers, media professionals and app users.
Aug Mon 18 2025
Schleswig Court of Appeal Confirms Illegality of Data Practices
The Schleswig Higher Regional Court dismissed SOMI's application for a preliminary injunction against Meta's use of public user content from Facebook and Instagram to train its AI model, Llama.
The court rejected the injunction on procedural grounds, ruling that SOMI filed too late after Meta's April 14th announcement. However, the court explicitly confirmed SOMI's findings that Meta's data practices violate EU law.
The court acknowledged that AI training likely involves sensitive data, information about non-registered individuals, and content from minors - all violations of GDPR protections for special categories of data. Such processing cannot be justified under "legitimate interest" and requires explicit consent, which Meta failed to obtain.
SOMI argued that Meta's conduct also breaches the Digital Markets Act by combining data from Facebook and Instagram without giving users clear choice, failing to provide transparency in its terms and conditions, and extending data use to AI systems beyond its social media platforms.
This ruling demonstrates the power of cease-and-desist instruments in protecting EU citizens from Big Tech's unlawful data exploitation. It also sends a clear procedural message: this tool must be deployed immediately when infringing conduct is announced to avoid forfeiting the ability to act swiftly for affected consumers.
SOMI will now deploy this instrument more proactively and frequently in its campaigns when EU law violations are evident, including in ongoing campaigns against other platforms such as X.
Based on this verdict, ongoing claims against Meta elsewhere in the EU, and evidence gathered by regulators and independent researchers, SOMI will proceed with litigation on the merits in Germany to secure a definitive ruling on the illegality of Meta's conduct within the EU.
SOMI remains committed to safeguarding the privacy and fundamental rights of EU citizens and holding Big Tech companies to the highest legal and ethical standards.
Safe AI in 2025
In August 2024, the AI Act entered into force. Information on how it works can be found here.
The AI Directive has been implemented to protect EU citizens from software that is not safe.
Examples on what can happen to people affected by unsafe AI can be viewed here.
So it is important that companies comply with this legislation and especially its goals to protect people. However, many companies, especially companies from outside the EU, have difficulty keeping EU citizens safe as their first priority.
In order to cure this problem, we start this Crowd Resourcing Campaign. Find an infraction on the AI directive by a tech company, and we award you EUR 10,000 in SOMI Litigation Certificates! In case your finding contributes to one of our ongoing cases, you earn EUR 50,000 in SOMI Litigation Certificates!
We will award a maximum of 5 contributions of EUR 10,000. We will award a maximum of 3 contributions of EUR 50,000.
An overview of our ongoing cases is found here.
Your rewards will be issued in SOMI Litigation Certificates.
If successful, you may earn a total of EUR 250,000.
Rules and Regulations apply.
Your contribution should contain:
A well argumented lay-out of the non-compliance with the AI Directive
A technical description that is understandable to a larger audience
Support in the form of research findings and/or 3rd party reports
An identification of the affected (groups of) individuals or entities
A description of the consequences of the non-compliance for EU citizens and/or companies
An identification of the parties involved and the time period and locations/websites in which it is taken place
In general: we should be able to use your contribution directly in our litigation.
Your contribution will remain confidential unless you give permission for it to be shared publicly. The intellectual property will remain yours, unless you grant us the rights to use and publicize it along with the reward given to you.
Your report should be in English and should be received prior to September 1st, 2025.
You may work on this in groups, in which the rewards will be divided or awarded to the collective of your choice.
Please contact welcome@somi.nl for more information.
Blog
Meta’s AI Plans Violate GDPR and Our Fundamental Rights
Imagine you are out in public, and a stranger approaches you. He’s developing a new technology, and for it to work, he needs to ingest all data about you that you or anyone else has ever put online. Once you give him permission to do so, you won’t ever be able to change your mind and get it back. And once he develops his new technology, he alone will profit off your data, which he will sell to thousands of companies and governments.