SOMI Announces Plans to Ramp up Collective Action Litigation

To Respond to Donald Trump’s Threats of Sanctions Against the EU Over Digital Governance

Aug Wed 27 2025

(Rotterdam, NL) – The Foundation for Market Information Research (SOMI) wants Donald Trump to know that citizens of Europe will not bow down to his bullying.

In response to threats that the American president will impose tariffs and other punitive measures against European Union Member States or its functionaries that move to regulate U.S. tech companies, SOMI is launching a public-partnership proposal. We will ramp up our civil litigation campaign against foreign “Big Tech” companies, including Meta Inc, TikTok, and X Corp, with a special offer, open to all EU jurisdictions:

For the remainder of 2025, SOMI will institute a claim in court of any EU jurisdiction in partnership with any person, group, investor, or grassroots association of concerned citizens that raises €250,000 to help finance litigation against any non-EU Big Tech company. We’ll also expand our ongoing claims against X, Meta and/or TikTok in new jurisdictions with any person or group that raises €150,000 per claim.

In view of the preferences of the President of the United States, we will prioritize DSA violations.

SOMI has already initiated 11 collective action claims in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and France, which collectively represent more than 150,000 people in Europe, and which demand more than €67B in compensatory damages.

“We want Trump to know that we are just getting started,” said SOMI founder and director Hans Franke. “The people of Europe won’t be bullied into accepting 24/7 surveillance by American tech companies.”

News emerged this week that Trump's administration has instructed U.S. diplomats in Europe to launch a lobbying campaign to build opposition to the Digital Services Act and other EU laws regulating data privacy and artificial intelligence. On Tuesday, President Trump declared on his own social media platform that he would fight against regulations that “discriminate” against American tech companies.

SOMI believes that everyone deserves access to justice, regardless of their resources, or the power of their adversary. We are confident that our collective actions will drive behavior change in the tech industry, and have the social impact of making the Internet safer for all.

“Here in Europe, we are still living in sovereign states, and under protection of the rule of law,” said Franke, a Dutch businessman and former litigator. “In our lands, American companies must comply with our laws, just like everyone else.”

SOMI has encountered widespread public support for its civil litigation to hold both Chinese and American technology companies to account when they violate EU data privacy regulations and other digital age legislation. Multiple, independent surveys reflect that nine out of ten Europeans worry about data privacy, feel unclear how tech companies use (and abuse) their data, and want greater autonomy over it.

“We can either fight for our autonomy now, or lose it forever,” said Franke, adding that SOMI has multiple new litigation campaigns in the works, some of which will roll out in the coming weeks.

SOMI’s litigation is fighting:

• Data breaches by Meta and X Corp that leaked the private information of millions of people;

• The bulk transfer of EU data to unsafe servers in the United States and China;

• Dangerous challenges on TikTok and design features on multiple platforms that addict children to their screens, or which enable predators to target vulnerable constituencies online;

• The appropriation of personal data and intellectual property by Meta’s AI training;

• The illegal circumvention of EU laws and surveillance across the Internet by Meta’s business tools and local host tracking; and

• The spread of hate speech on X (formerly Twitter) since Elon Musk took over the platform.

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About Us: SOMI is a non-profit foundation under Dutch law that is uniting European communities to litigate data misuse and fundamental online rights. We believe that collective action litigation will amplify individual voices and drive systemic social impact. The SOMI app empowers people to join and/or initiate, and/or invest in legal action against companies that misuse their personal data and spread online harm. SOMI envisions a future where access to justice is democratized across Europe, where ordinary people are empowered to hold tech giants accountable, and they have autonomy over the use of their personal data, and the value it holds.

SOMI invites members of the media in the EU to subscribe to our newsletter, and/or contact our team at welcome@somi.nl to request interviews, and stay up to date with our litigation activities.