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What is mineral water? France asks EU for guidance after Perrier scandal

PARIS — France will seek guidance from Brussels on the definition of mineral water following a high-level scandal involving Perrier-producer Nestlé Waters that reached all the way to the office of President Emmanuel Macron.

A senatorial report, released this week, claimed the Swiss-owned group successfully lobbied the French government — including one of the president’s closest aides — to obtain authorization to sell as mineral water a product that had been filtered in a way that authorities previously deemed altered its composition.

Now, Paris says the European Commission should intervene to establish an EU-wide framework on the issue.

“[France] will be contacting the European Commission to find out its position, and to ask about its intentions regarding a possible revision of the European directive defining original purity and the status of microfiltration, so that we can have harmonization at the European level,” Véronique Louwagie, France’s junior minister for trade, told the Senate during a question session on Wednesday.

French health officials had determined that any filtration below a 0.8-micron threshold could risk changing the water’s natural state — yet Nestlé lobbied the French government to allow microfiltration at 0.2 microns through local executive orders.

Past regulations were intended to ensure that natural mineral water remained pure and unaltered — a key justification for the premium price paid by consumers.

LP Staff Writers

Writers at Lord’s Press come from a range of professional backgrounds, including history, diplomacy, heraldry, and public administration. Many publish anonymously or under initials—a practice that reflects the publication’s long-standing emphasis on discretion and editorial objectivity. While they bring expertise in European nobility, protocol, and archival research, their role is not to opine, but to document. Their focus remains on accuracy, historical integrity, and the preservation of events and individuals whose significance might otherwise go unrecorded.

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