F1 teams forced to remove ‘crypto’ branding due to French law regulatory uncertainty: report
While France is primarily friendly to digital assets, the regulatory framework for the industry is not entirely clear. This has recently been demonstrated in the debacle faced by Formula One (F1) racing teams with digital asset firms among their sponsors.
According to a report by Racing News 365, during the recently held F1 French Grand Prix weekend, eight of the ten participating teams with digital currency partners were forced at short notice to take legal advice on what is allowed by the Autorité des Marche Financiers ( AMF) — France’s financial market regulator.
These teams all have digital asset companies as part of their sponsors. A few employees, including Alfa Romeo, AlphaTauri and Alpine, sponsored by Vauld and Floki, Fantom digital ecosystem and Binance, chose to remove or cover up their sponsors’ branding.
Similarly, F1, the organizers of the event, did not display the logo of their global partner Crypto.com for the same reason.
Meanwhile, due to the vagueness of the AMF’s rule, other teams, including Mercedes (sponsored by FTX), Aston Martin (Crypto.com), Ferrari (Velas network), Red Bull Racing (Bybit and Tezos), and McLaren ( OKX and Tezos) still chose to play the sponsors’ branding.
A spokesperson for Mercedes told the news outlet that they chose to run with the sponsor logo after a clarification that the Velas Network does not offer services that fall under the AMF.
“Velas Network AG informed us that they do not offer services that require registration with [AMF] and therefore there is no advertising ban with regard to the use of the Velas logo on the Scuderia Ferrari assets within the framework of the French GP,” the person said.
France is still struggling to provide regulatory clarity for digital assets
The AMF has banned the marketing and advertising of digital assets since 2018. However, the complication comes from the regulator’s definition of digital assets, which remains unclear.
Other products and services that France prohibits from being advertised include tobacco, alcohol and gambling. Regulators in many other countries, such as the UK and Singapore, also have similar rules governing the marketing and advertising of digital assets.
France, meanwhile, has made proposals to clarify its position on digital asset regulations – giving it an even higher priority than the launch of a CBDC. The EU member state has recently been urged by an outgoing lawmaker to continue to introduce swift digital asset laws and not wait for the single regulation alone.
See: BSV Global Blockchain Convention panel, Blockchain for Government Data & Applications
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