PARIS — Call it the French Watergate.
The iconic French mineral water brand Perrier is at the center of a fresh scandal that threatens to bubble over and hit the highest levels of government.
Nestlé Waters lobbied France’s government, including people close to French President Emmanuel Macron, to make possible the sale of branded mineral water that circumvented stringent French regulations, effectively misleading consumers, according to a damning Senate report released Monday.
At the heart of the accusations are Nestlé Waters’s allegedly unauthorized use of carbon filters and ultraviolet light — methods normally used on tap water — to treat mineral water for several of its brands, including its flagship sparkling water Perrier. But France’s stringent regulations aim to ensure that natural mineral water remains pure and unaltered, justifying the steep price tag paid by consumers.
