Hangovers are an ‘illness’ says German court

A German court has ruled that hangovers are an “illness” in a case against the maker of an anti-hangover drink.

As reported by the BBC, the unnamed firm was taken to court in Frankfurt after being accused of making illegal health claims about its anti-hangover drinks powders and shots.

The court said in its ruling that illnesses included small or temporary changes to the body’s normal state.

Drinks cannot be marketed as being able to prevent or treat illnesses, it added.

“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 superior regional court’s ruling said.

“By an illness, one should understand even small or temporary disruptions to the normal state or normal activity of the body.”

Such temporary changes include the tiredness, nausea and headaches commonly associated with hangovers, which the company claimed its shots and powders could cure.

The ruling comes just days after Germany’s annual beer festival, Oktoberfest, began in Munich.