A Dutch Foundation Is Suing Snapchat Over Streaks, Snap Scores, and Autoplay.

In June 2026, the Mass Damage and Consumer Foundation filed a collective lawsuit against Snap in the Netherlands. The foundation is asking an Amsterdam court to order Snap to redesign its app, specifically targeting features the foundation describes as deliberately engineered to maximise user engagement. With 6 million Snapchat users in the Netherlands, the case has the potential to become one of the largest consumer protection actions against a social media platform in European legal history.

What the foundation is asking for

The lawsuit centres on four main demands.

The first is the ability to disable addictive features. According to the complaint, features such as Streaks, Snap Scores, and autoplay must be turned off by default and must remain off when a user chooses to disable them. The foundation is asking the court to require Snap to respect that choice: no notifications designed to pull users back, no reduction in functionality for those who use the app less. The younger the user, the stricter these requirements should be, according to the complaint.

The second demand is effective age verification. The foundation argues that Snap must verify users' ages in a meaningful way, not simply rely on self-reported dates of birth.

The third is stronger action against illegal content and activities shared on the platform.

The fourth is financial compensation for users who have been exposed to addictive design features without adequate protection. The compensation sought ranges from €425 to €1,850 per user, scaled according to how intensively a person used the app and at what age they were when they used it. Applied across the Netherlands' 6 million Snapchat users, the total claim ranges from €2.55 billion to €11.1 billion.

How the lawsuit came about

Lucia Melcherts, chairwoman of the foundation, told Dutch newspaper AD that the organisation approached Snap directly before deciding to file. The conversation did not lead anywhere. "They gave us the runaround," she said.

The foundation has a track record of pursuing collective legal action against major platforms. It has previously taken action against TikTok, X, and Meta. The Snapchat case follows a similar pattern: identifying specific design features the foundation considers harmful, attempting to resolve the issue directly with the platform, and turning to the courts when that produces no result.

The legal basis for the lawsuit has not been formally specified in the complaint documents, though the foundation's own timeline of events references the Digital Services Act three times, which may indicate the direction the case takes.

The features at the centre of the case

Streaks, Snap Scores, and autoplay are not incidental parts of the Snapchat experience. They are core engagement mechanics.

Streaks count the number of consecutive days two users have exchanged snaps. The longer the streak, the more pressure there is to maintain it. Snap Scores aggregate a user's total activity on the platform into a visible number, creating a persistent metric that tracks and rewards engagement. Autoplay moves users from one piece of content to the next without requiring an active choice to continue.

According to the foundation's complaint, Snapchat is deliberately designed to maximise user engagement through features that encourage continuous and prolonged use. The lawsuit asks the court to treat these features as design decisions that carry legal consequences, rather than neutral product choices.

Why this case matters beyond the Netherlands

The Mass Damage and Consumer Foundation's approach follows a pattern that has been gaining traction across multiple jurisdictions: targeting specific interface features rather than platform content. Courts in California, New Mexico, and Germany have all issued rulings or verdicts this year that centre on design mechanics rather than what users see or post. The Dutch lawsuit adds collective consumer action to that list.

Fairpatterns detects these design mechanics automatically, across platforms and at scale.

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