In a verdict released Monday, the German court ruled that marketing by the defendant in the case violated an existing ban on using food products to prevent or treat illness, AP reported. As a result, the unidentified company cannot declare that its powders and shots can cure hangovers.
“Information about a food product cannot ascribe any properties for preventing, treating or healing a human illness or give the impression of such a property,” the court statement read, according to the Guardian.
According to the court statement obtained by AP, illnesses should be defined comprehensively as “any, even a slight or temporary, disruption of the body’s normal condition or normal activity.” The court also noted that common hangover symptoms such as headaches are caused by consuming alcohol, which is a “harmful substance.”
According to the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, a hangover “refers to a set of symptoms that occur as a consequence of excessive alcohol use.”
Common hangover symptoms include “fatigue, weakness, thirst, headache, muscle aches, nausea, stomach pain, vertigo, sensitivity to light and sound, anxiety, irritability, sweating, and increased blood pressure,” the institute notes.
