Separate litigation has been filed in Germany and Austria over allegations that Meta secretly tracks users through its business tools.
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Dutch non-profit foundation SOMI said today that it has launched a legal action against Meta’s “unlawful surveillance practices” in Germany. The class action lawsuit alleges that the tech company collects sensitive user information for profiling purposes by embedding its business tools into millions of websites and apps, including medical platforms and dating services.
According to SOMI, Meta’s conduct violates the GDPR as the company has failed to obtain proper user consent prior to such tracking. It is seeking an order forcing Meta to immediately halt its alleged surveillance, as well as compensation for Instagram and Facebook users in Germany amounting to at least €1,000 per user for each year of use since May 2018.
The lawsuit is also pursuing claims against Meta’s “localhost tracking” method, SOMI said. It cited a June 2025 study carried out by an international research collaboration which found that Android apps including Facebook and Instagram embed tracking code into websites that allow them to bypass privacy protections and map users’ browsing habits.
“The tool was able to function even in incognito mode, under a VPN and, most unforgivingly, after the users had rejected cookies and similar tracking technologies through consent management systems,” SOMI said in a statement. “This surveillance practice gave Meta unauthorised access to intimate internet traffic, violating the principles of confidentiality and integrity that lay at the basis of European data protection law.”
SOMI is demanding additional compensation of €2,000 for each Android user whose devices were unlawfully infiltrated by localhost tracking when it was running between September 2024 and June 2025.
Spirit Legal partner Peter Hense, who represents SOMI, told Lexology PRO that Meta “basically installed spyware” on all Android devices, adding that it was not compliance pressure but a request from Google that prompted Meta to stop the tracking.
“But in the meantime they had access to everything individuals did on the web,” Hense said. “As far as we know authorities have not yet acted on this.”
This is the fourth action brought by the Dutch group in Germany. It initiated collective actions against X and TikTok in February, and another against Meta in August after a German court rejected a bid to halt the company’s AI training plans.
A similar claim has been filed against Meta by the Austrian Consumer Protection Association, known as VSV, before the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg. It said today that it has also lodged an injunction with the Vienna Commercial Court and plans to file a class action lawsuit in the country at a later date and after observing how the German courts rule.
VSV is targeting Meta’s use of business tools which it claims monitor large parts of users’ private lives, including their online purchasing and browsing habits – “in Germany alone, 50 million people are affected by Meta-surveillance”, it said in a statement. It is demanding information about Meta’s practices, the deletion of collected data and damages for Instagram and Facebook users amounting to €5,000 for adults, and €10,000 for minors.
A spokesperson for Meta said the company "strongly disagree[s] with these baseless claims and will vigorously defend against them.”
Counsel to SOMI
Spirit Legal
Partner Peter Hense in Leipzig
Counsel to VSV
Baumeister & Kollegen