The French Senate suspects an executive at Nestlé’s domestic water business of perjury during its inquiry hearing into the company’s bottled water production.
In a statement, the Senate said there were grounds to suggest Ronan Le Fanic, the global head of technical and production at Nestlé Waters, lied during his hearing in March.
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It has referred the “false testimony” matter to the Paris prosecutor.
France launched a parliamentary inquiry into Nestlé’s local waters business in April last year, which came to close roughly a year later.
After comparing “certain elements” of Le Fanic’s testimonies with documents assessed by the senator and inquiry rapporteur Alexandre Ouizille, the Senate concluded “this manager did not respect his oath to tell ‘the whole truth and nothing but the truth'”.
During the hearing, Ouizille asked Le Fanic whether there had been any “production problems, in particular shutdowns linked to contamination or difficulties on the production line […] at Vergèze”, between January and March this year.
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By GlobalDataAccording to the Senate, Le Fanic responded: “There was nothing out of the ordinary. We have not suffered a Cévennes episode [heavy storms] this year and I hope there will not be one”.
The rapporteur also asked Le Fanic to confirm under oath that there were no problems at the Vergèze production lines. Le Fanic replied: “Yes, for the moment, the activity is routine.”
However, the Senate said Le Fanic’s comments did not align with its investigation, highlighting that it had found Perrier’s production lines were hit by bacterial contamination on 10 and 21 March this year, and that “Nestlé Waters management was necessarily informed”.
The Senate added: “In both cases, the events in question, which were reported in the press, led to the blockage of numerous pallets of Perrier bottles, a blockage that has still not been lifted to this day.”
If convicted, Le Fanic could face five years in prison and a €75,000 ($83,322) penalty.
On X, Ouizille said: “Nestlé Waters has told us little. But some glaring untruths have emerged.
“At least one perjurer has been identified.”
Just Drinks has contacted Nestlé and its local water business for comment.
The complete findings from the inquiry are due on 19 May.
This month, Nestlé has already faced calls from French authorities to remove system filters from its Vergèze and Vosges sites in France, which produce bottled water brands such as Perrier and Contrex.
Nestlé’s waters unit told Just Drinks at the time it was “determined to seek solutions to the requests of the Prefects of the Gard and Vosges to withdraw, within two months, the 0.2 micron microfiltration”.
It said in a brief statement that a “technical solution” had already been found for the Vosges location, which will impact Contrex and Hépar, but the plan still “must be validated by authorities”.
The Vittel brand “is not affected by this type of microfiltration”, the group said.
The Acqua Panna maker has had its water production under scrutiny since January last year, when it admitted to breaching regulations in France regarding how it treats bottled mineral water against contamination.
In April, Nestlé’s CEO Laurent Freixe told French senators the company would be starting an internal audit of its water production in France.
Speaking to the Senate in a hearing, he said the review would take “a few months” to complete and that it was “essential if we are to learn all the lessons we need to, and I will draw all the necessary conclusions from it”.
In his opening remarks, Freixe said its waters division had been informed about an “unfavourable opinion” from a hydrogeologists’ report on the continued use of wells for natural mineral water production at its Vergèze facility in the Gard region of southern France.
Last year, Nestlé confirmed its waters business had used different purification treatments on products labelled as “mineral water”, including those sold under brands such as Perrier and Vittel, which are produced at its Vergèze and Vosges facilities in France.
According to Le Monde at the time, Nestlé reportedly used disinfectants “due to sporadic bacterial or chemical contamination”, which are not permitted under French law on products labelled as ‘spring’ or ‘mineral’ water.
In a statement, Nestlé then said it used “microfiltration at [its] waters sites at a finer level than was previously recognised by the French authorities”.
“We have also used activated carbon filters and ultraviolet systems which, though permitted by other jurisdictions, are not in line with applicable French natural mineral water regulations,” Nestlé added.
It said it had “proactively” reported this to the French authorities in 2021 and “presented them with several options to ensure compliance moving forward”.
