“Marketing Will Continue as Usual”: Despite Money Laundering Allegations, Max Verstappen Opts to Stick With Dutch Giants

Max Verstappen has witnessed a stupendous rise in motorsport. Since his junior racing days, the Dutchman had a great progression with his talent. Although, several stakeholders have contributed to Verstappen’s rise to F1. Be it his parents, his manager, Red Bull and its junior program, and his sponsors. Everyone has supported Max whenever needed. But now one of his key sponsors is under investigation for money laundering allegations.

As per GP Fans, Max’s sponsor Jumbo which is a Dutch supermarket chain has found itself in the midst of a money laundering investigation. This investigation is probably around their sponsorships in motorsport in addition to real estate and automotive trade. Back in 2022, the Jumbo group’s CEO Frits van Eerd had got arrested and stepped down from his position.

Though, while recently delivering the group’s annual report, the interim CEO Ton van Veen has denied Jumbo’s involvement in this investigation. As quoted by GP Fans, he said, “Motorsport has come to be seen in a special light for us.”

“This also has consequences for our sponsorship. We will no longer continue with that. We will also take a critical look at our activities in motorsport. An exception to this is the contract with Max Verstappen.”

Back in September 2022, Verstappen’s manager Raymond Vermeulen also spoke to the newspaper Algemeen Dagblad on this fiasco. Vermeulen affirmed how they are opting to stay with the Dutch supermarket giants.

He stated, “We are waiting for the facts to be on the table. We have been in contact with Jumbo and the management and marketing will continue as usual.”

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Regardless, Verstappen has been involved with Jumbo for a long time. Thus, even during a prior issue with another online supermarket Jumbo stood strong with Max. As the Dutchman had dragged the online chain to the court for breaching his image rights.

How Max Verstappen claimed $160K for Breach of Personality Rights

Back in 2016, Max Verstappen was just making his mark in F1. This was the time when he also gained a lot of fame back in the Netherlands. Thus, to probably gain popularity for their brand image, Picnic – an online supermarket chain made a funny video using a Verstappen look-alike.

As per Autosport, this video was a take on another commercial Max had shot with his sponsor Jumbo. Though, Verstappen and his management did not like this action at all. As a result, they demanded to take down the video immediately. Max’s management reasoned that they cannot breach his image rights by using his name or face in an unauthorized manner.

While Picnic took the video down, Verstappen claimed $425K worth of damages from Picnic. Eventually, after a lawsuit, Picnic has to pay the Red Bull driver $160K in damages for breaching his personality rights.

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So, Max and his management know how to handle such tricky situations. It will be interesting to see whether they stick it out with Jumbo if this money laundering situation develops further. As things stand, Verstappen is set to be the marketing face for the Dutch supermarket chain.