Several environmental organizations filed a lawsuit against Danone on Monday, accusing the food group of a lack of transparency in its use of plastic and insufficient efforts to reduce it.

Danone, owner of the Evian and Volvic mineral water brands, said in a statement sent to Reuters that it was "very surprised by this accusation, which we firmly refute".

The case comes as a growing number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are taking legal action against major groups on the basis of a 2017 law on "duty of vigilance".

Danone has been taken to court in Paris by the three NGOs Surfrider, Client Earth and Zero Waste France.

"We want Danone to be ordered to republish a vigilance plan specifying the deplastification strategy," said Antidia Citores, spokesperson for France at Surfrider Foundation Europe.

She believes that Danone does not take sufficient account of all the plastic used throughout the production cycles, from agriculture to packaging, and that the group does not publicly indicate how it intends to reduce its use of plastic.

"Danone has long been recognized as a pioneer in environmental risk management," says the company for its part, which tells Reuters it plans to reduce its use of plastic by 12% worldwide between 2018 and 2021.

(Reported by Tassilo Hummet, Blandine Hénault for the French version, edited by Nicolas Delame)

by Tassilo Hummel