A mountain spring and a billion-euro question over the meaning of EU purity rules
David Merle has a weakness for leopard-print shirts, and for picking ambitious fights.
The mineral water entrepreneur, known in France for a two-year battle against water giant Nestlé Waters, is trying to make a splash in Brussels by forcing the European Commission to settle a billion-euro question: what does “natural mineral water” actually mean?
The label enables companies to sell at prices up to 400 times those of tap water, while promising consumers a rare liquid that emerges from a protected source. Under EU law, it may undergo only a handful of authorised treatments before it is bottled.
Merle says Bonneval Emergence, his Alpine source, fully complies with the EU’s standards.
