Food products Nestlé boss regrets treatment of mineral water in France
Nestlé CEO Laurent Freixe has expressed his regrets to a French Senate committee of inquiry in Paris in the affair surrounding the improper treatment of mineral water in France.
09.04.2025, 21:00
SDA
"On behalf of the Nestlé Group, I would once again like to express my deepest regret about this situation in the past, which was not in line with the values of our Group," said Freixe. Nestlé Waters had done everything possible to put an end to the practices in question.
Nestlé mineral water (Perrier, Hépar, Contrex, Vittel) has been the subject of controversy in France for some time. The accusation is that spring water, which at times did not meet the requirements, was filtered in a way that was not permitted for mineral water and then marketed as natural mineral water.
In September 2024, Nestlé Waters reached a court agreement regarding past practices at mineral water springs in the Vosges, which included the payment of a fine of two million euros.
The committee of inquiry is convinced that the world's largest food company exerted pressure on France to tolerate the unlawful practices.
Opaque connection to Macron
"The Presidency of the Republic has known since at least 2022 that Nestlé has been cheating for several years. It was aware that this was distorting competition with other mineral water companies," said Alexandre Ouizille, the rapporteur on the committee of inquiry. "It knew about the bacteriological and even, this is an essential point, virological contamination of some sources."
Because Alexis Kohler, President Emmanuel Macron's closest advisor, repeatedly refused to appear before the committee of inquiry, the latter decided to quote from emails provided by the Élysée Palace. According to these, there was already a meeting between the Macron confidant and the then Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider in 2022.
