For quite a while, the association Verband Deutscher Mineralbrunnen e.V. (VDM) has been trying to prevent water suppliers from calling their tap water “healthy” when providing customers with information. The Higher Regional Court of Munich explicitly allowed the water supplier to do so last year. The corresponding complaint against denial of leave to appeal before the Federal Court of Justice remained unsuccessful, which means the decision of the Higher Regional Court is now final and binding. The Federal Court of Justice thus also confirmed that meeting the statutory duty to provide information does not constitute a commercial practice.

“It is good news that the Federal Court of Justice has now clarified the legal question so that water suppliers can now meet their statutory duties to provide information without running the risk of receiving a warning from their competitors,” says BBH partner and lawyer Stefan Wollschläger, who represented the water supplier in the complaint procedure.

The BBH group is a leading provider of advisory services for energy and infrastructure companies and their customers. Energy and supply companies, particularly public utilities, municipalities and local authorities, industrial companies and international groups are among its core clients. The BBH group advises these and many other companies and organisations in all legal matters and also assists them with business and strategic advice.

Contact:

Prof. Dr Ines Zenke
Rechtsanwältin/Lawyer, Partner
Phone +49 (0)30 611 28 40 - 179
ines.zenke@bbh-online.de

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