In France, Nestlé admits to having carried out illegal treatments on its bottled water. The investigation began in 2020 with an alert launched to the Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Control in France.
The problem is that mineral water is supposed to be naturally “ pure ” water that doesn’t need any treatment. The regulation, resulting from a European directive, prohibits any disinfection of mineral waters, because they must naturally be of high microbiological quality, unlike tap water which is disinfected before becoming drinkable.