D3 Has Filed Four Lawsuits Against Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Here Is What the Cases Argue.

D3, the Portuguese association for the defence of digital rights and a member of the European Digital Rights network, has brought four collective lawsuits before Portuguese civil courts against Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. The cases were filed in April and May 2025 by law firm Andersen Tax & Legal Iberia, with academic support from Professor Fabrizio Esposito and Dr Cecília Isola of the NOVA School of Law. They were disclosed publicly after the judicial summer break.

What the lawsuits are about

The cases centre on specific design features that D3 argues are built to maximise time spent on the platforms at the expense of users' ability to make independent decisions about their own usage.

The features D3 highlights are infinite scrolling, autoplay videos, persistent notifications, and highly personalised recommendation systems. According to D3, these features remove natural stopping points, constantly surface content tailored to individual users, and repeatedly prompt users to return after leaving. The complaint argues this creates behavioural feedback loops comparable to techniques long used in the gambling industry.

D3's position is that these features are not accidental byproducts of platform design. They are built using detailed knowledge of users' psychological vulnerabilities, preferences, intimacy, aspirations, and emotional states, combined with the computational capacity to process and act on that information at scale. The result, according to the complaint, is that platforms progressively shape users' behaviour, making it genuinely difficult to voluntarily stop using them and reducing the scope for independent decision-making.

The scientific basis

D3 grounds its argument in a body of scientific literature across medicine, psychology, sociology, and technology that recognises these features as effective in forming compulsive habits and behaviours. The complaint also notes that the impact of these features has been recognised by the European Parliament and has been the subject of formal investigations by the European Commission, as well as legal proceedings in the US and the Netherlands.

D3's position on restricting minors

One aspect of D3's approach sets it apart from some other advocacy positions on platform regulation. D3 explicitly argues that restricting access for under-16s is not the right response to the problem.

Ricardo Lafuente, president of D3, makes the case plainly. "Platforms do not have to be hyper-addictive. A healthy, productive and educational social media ecosystem is possible, but only if the rules are firm, properly enforced and targeted at those who really insist on ignoring them."

D3's reasoning is that these platforms have become essential means of communication and interaction for people of all ages. Penalising users by restricting access does not address the underlying design choices that create the problem. The lawsuits are aimed at the platforms themselves, not at the people using them.

Where this fits in the broader legal landscape

Courts in the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands have all been asked to rule on whether specific platform design features, rather than the content those platforms host, create legal liability. In the US, more than 1,400 school districts have filed suits against Meta, Snap, TikTok, and YouTube. In Germany, a Frankfurt court issued a preliminary injunction against FIFA over dark patterns in its ticketing platform. In the Netherlands, the Mass Damage and Consumer Foundation filed a collective lawsuit against Snapchat over Streaks, Snap Scores, and autoplay.

The Portuguese cases follow a similar approach, with D3 acting as a collective representative rather than relying on individual plaintiffs.

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