An upscale restaurant in an upmarket French ski resort has been hit with an €8000 fraud fine for telling customers that tap water wasn’t available there.
Under French law, tap water, bread and cutlery are a mandatory part of basic meal service, but some restaurants try to boost profits by telling diners it’s not available and that only paid-for bottles of mineral water are on offer.
The restaurant, Les Aiguilles du Péclet in Val Thorens “refused to serve tap water to customers with their meal . . . only paid-for bottles of mineral water were available,” according to, ahem, the Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes (DGCCRF). The mineral water was priced at €12 per bottle.
The free water requirements date to 1967, although they lapsed between 2016 and 2022, when they were restored. Water must be supplied on request after ordering a meal; since 2022, restaurants have been required to include a notice on the menu that it’s available.
