In the preliminary injunction proceedings, the plaintiff (an individual natural person) objected to Meta's plan to merge and use his personal data and information between Facebook and/or Instagram and other Meta services, including for the purpose of AI training, without prior consent.
Meta informed the users that it intended to use their data (among other purposes) for AI training, starting May 2025 (according to the Dutch Data Protection Authority). Meta also provided an opt-out to this data processing, available on its platform. The plaintiff claimed that this was not sufficient and that Meta instead needed permission according to the DMA.
He also claimed that the opt-out option offered by Meta was insufficient, as it required a login with a Meta service under Meta's terms of use (which the plaintiff refused). When he objected to the use of his data by email in April 2025, he received an error message. Since the data merger would be irreversible in May 2025, he argued that urgent action was required, leading to the PI proceedings.