Foodwatch to file two new complaints against Nestlé and the Alma group

The consumer protection NGO is calling for the rapid appointment of an investigating judge.

The consumer protection NGO Foodwatch will file two new complaints against Nestlé and the Alma group in the case of illegally treated bottled water, franceinfo and The World. However, a few days ago, the Nestlé company had reached an agreement with the courts to end the ongoing investigations.

On January 30, an investigation by the investigation unit of Radio France and the newspaper The World revealed that Nestlé and other manufacturers had hidden from the public that the water they were pumping was contaminated. To continue bottling it, they used banned purification systems. Thirty percent of bottled water brands are affected, according to the investigation.

While the Epinal court announced a few days ago the signing of a CJIP, a public interest judicial agreement, allowing Nestlé to escape a possible trial in exchange for the payment of a fine of 2 million euros, Foodwatch, which had already filed a complaint after the affair was revealed by the investigation unit of Radio France and by the newspaper The World last January, requested the rapid appointment of an investigating judge.

These two new complaints, this time with civil action, will be filed on Wednesday with the Paris judicial court, to shed light on the responsibility of the manufacturers but also on the lack of transparency of the State in this affair. Indeed, as revealed last January by Radio France, the government had been informed of the deception by the Nestlé company itself, as early as 2021, during a confidential meeting at Bercy.

After playing the negotiation game with the industrialist, the government then granted, at the beginning of 2023, to the multinational, the possibility of using micro-filters prohibited by the regulations on natural mineral waters. And this, against the advice of its administrations, in particular the Food Safety Agency.

The NGO, which claims to have “refused Nestlé’s money”, “cannot bring himself to bury the massive fraud affair which has affected the whole world for decades, particularly the famous Perrier”. All the more so since the financial agreement signed between Nestlé and the courts does not extinguish the possibility of new legal actions.