For this deep groundwater they do not pay the general public in Hesse and Thuringia a cent, in other federal states between five (for example in North Rhine-Westphalia or Saxony) to a maximum of 31 cents (Berlin), mind you, per cubic meter. And so for tiny fractions of what they charge in the store for bottled water or what citizens pay for their tap water.
Business is booming because Germans are drinking more and more mineral water. The Federal Statistical Office published figures on Tuesday according to which the production of mineral, table and medicinal water rose by 2.7 percent to 13.07 billion liters in 2025. The consumer protection organization Foodwatch has researched that consumption in this country has increased tenfold since 1970. What she considers worrying: Almost two thirds of the 61 German production sites for mineral water and lemonades are in districts that have already been affected by water shortages.
“It is no longer acceptable for Red Bull and Co. to use our water.”
There, of all places, the relevant companies such as Coca-Cola, Aldi, MEG, which belongs to the Schwarz Group (Lidl, Kaufland), or Red Bull, are likely to “use the water resource at a ridiculous price,” according to a new report from Foodwatch, which is available to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. In regions where the authorities are already restricting water use for private households in dry summers like 2026 and prohibiting them from watering lawns or filling pools under threat of fines.
“We citizens should save water - at the same time, beverage companies pump out water cheaply and sometimes even for free, even in dry regions,” says Alina Nitsche, who was responsible for the study at Foodwatch. “In view of hot summers and increasing regional drought, it is no longer acceptable for Red Bull and Co. to use our water.”
Especially when the situation gets as dire as it did last summer. “In Bavaria, villages were supplied by tankers because water was becoming scarce,” says Nitsche. She also refers to a study published by the environmental organization BUND 2025, according to which half of Germany's 400 districts are at risk of water stress. Experts use this term when groundwater extraction exceeds recharge by more than 20 percent.
Foodwatch also examined the production sites of the 15 top-selling beverage companies in Germany to determine the conditions under which they extract groundwater. According to the results, in at least five locations they pay nothing for it. Private households would pay up to 30 times more than the beverage manufacturers at the other locations.
Foodwatch also calculates that the mineral water company Hassia in Hesse extracts groundwater free of charge, but sells the bottle in the store for 1.32 euros. Franken-Brunnen pays 0.0001 euros for a liter of groundwater, while supermarkets charge 0.92 euros for it - 9200 times as much. Even if you buy a liter of the Saskia brand from Lidl for 19 cents, you still pay more than 2,700 times as much as the Saskia manufacturer MEG had to spend on the bottled groundwater.
Many authorities do not want to say anything about the extraction conditions for mineral water companies
The consumer organization also criticizes the authorities' generosity. “They often grant water abstraction rights with long, sometimes even unlimited, permits and at very low prices, sometimes even for free,” the report says. For example, the mineral water giant Refresco, which was allowed to withdraw water indefinitely in Trappenkamp in Schleswig-Holstein in 2019. In total, Foodwatch made more than 100 inquiries to authorities about specific water rights awards. However, many of them would fail. An untenable situation, says Nitsche. “The common good of water does not belong to Coca-Cola, Aldi, Red Bull and Co., but to all of us.”
