Traeger (COOK) Risk Factors

As our business continues to expand, our competitors have imitated or attempted to imitate, and will likely continue to imitate or attempt to imitate, our product designs, functionality, and branding, which could harm our business and results of operations. Only a portion of the intellectual property used in the manufacture and design of our products is patented, and we therefore rely on other forms of protection, including trade and service marks, copyrights, trade dress, trade secrets, and the strength of our brand. For example, the original patent for pellet grills, which was filed by Joe Traeger in 1986, expired in 2006. Following expiration of this patent, competitors introduced competing products with similar designs and technologies, and there are currently a significant number of wood pellet grills available from a variety of competitors, including Weber and Dansons, among others. We regard our patents, trade dress, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and other intellectual property and proprietary rights as critical to our success. We also rely on trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, suppliers, manufacturers, and others to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights. Nevertheless, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights against infringement or other violation may be inadequate, and we may experience difficulty in effectively limiting the unauthorized use of our patents, trademarks, trade dress, copyrights and other intellectual property and proprietary rights worldwide. We also cannot guarantee that others will not independently develop technology with the same or similar functionality of the intellectual property and proprietary technology we rely on to conduct our business and differentiate ourselves from our competitors. As we continue to grow our business and strengthen our brand, we expect to experience increased counterfeiting of our products, including, among others, imitation and look-alike products and fraudulent websites and distributors. Unauthorized use or invalidation of our patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade dress, trade secrets, or other intellectual property or proprietary rights may cause significant damage to our brand and harm our business and results of operations. While we actively develop and protect our intellectual property rights, there can be no assurance that we will be adequately protected in all countries in which we conduct our business or that we will prevail when defending our patent, trademark, and other intellectual property and proprietary rights. Additionally, we could incur significant costs and management distraction in pursuing claims to enforce our intellectual property rights through litigation and defending any alleged counterclaims. If we are unable to protect or preserve the value of our patents, trade dress, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property and proprietary rights for any reason, or if we fail to maintain our brand image due to actual or perceived product or service quality issues, adverse publicity, governmental investigations or litigation, or other reasons, our brand and reputation could be damaged, and our business and results of our operations may be harmed.

Some of our customers have expressed a preference that certain of our products be made from raw materials sourced from forests certified to different standards, including standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Additionally, some environmental non-governmental organizations and media organizations have targeted the wood pellet industry as harmful to the environment and encouraged consumers to opt for more environmentally friendly options. Such trends may continue to develop as companies are encouraged or mandated by regulators to disclose more sustainability-related information in relation to their operations and supply chains. If customer demand for sustainably produced products (including FSC-certified sources) increases and we are unable to meet such demand, there may be reduced demand, and we may only be able to charge lower prices for our products relative to our competitors who can supply products sourced from forests certified to such standards. Furthermore, if we and our competitors seek to comply with sustainability initiatives, including those of the FSC, we could incur materially increased costs for our operations or be required to modify our existing operations, which would have a material adverse effect on our revenue, margins and cash flows. In addition, we may be unable to obtain the raw materials (particularly wood fiber from third parties for use at our wood pellet facilities) required to sustain our growth and satisfy our existing and future customer contracts without incurring increased costs, including in connection with assisting some of our third party suppliers in their efforts to obtain FSC-certification, which would otherwise be cost-prohibitive. FSC, in particular, employs standards that are geographically variable and could cause a material reduction in our ability to source wood pellets, which would have a material adverse effect on our ability to execute our business plan and our results of operations. Increasing environmental and climate consciousness among customers may impact other aspects of our products, including our grills or non-wood pellet consumables, and developing products that satisfy the market's evolving expectations for product composition and environmental profiles may require us to incur significant costs.

Part of our growth strategy involves increasing our DTC sales through our website and Traeger app. However, we have limited operating and compliance experience executing the retail component of this strategy, and our competitors may have a greater online presence and a more developed e-commerce platform than us. The level of customer traffic and volume of customer purchases through our websites or other e-commerce initiatives are substantially dependent on our ability to provide a content-rich and user-friendly website, a hassle-free customer experience, sufficient product availability, and reliable, timely delivery of our products. If we are unable to maintain and increase customers' safe and effective use of our website or Traeger app, allocate sufficient product to our website or Traeger app, adequately protect our customers from fraudulent activity online, including third parties impersonating our products, and increase any sales through our DTC channel, our business, and results of operations could be harmed. Moreover, any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with applicable laws and regulations, including those associated with our website or the Traeger app, may result in governmental investigations or enforcement actions, litigation, claims or public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups or others. As we expand our e-commerce platform across the geographies in which we sell our products, we may encounter different and evolving laws governing the operation and marketing of e-commerce websites, as well as the collection, storage, and use of information on customers interacting with those websites. We may incur additional costs and operational challenges in complying with these laws and regulations, and differences in these laws and regulations may cause us to operate our business differently, and less effectively, in different territories. If so, we may incur additional costs and may not fully realize the investment in our geographic expansion.

The Traeger name and premium brand image are integral to the growth of our business, as well as to the implementation of our strategies for expanding our business. Our success depends on the value and reputation of our brand, which, in turn, depends on factors such as the quality, market fit, design, performance, and functionality of our physical and digital products, our communication and marketing activities, including live and digital advertising, social media, online content, and public relations, the image of our retailers' floor spaces and e-commerce platform, and our management of the customer experience, including direct interfaces through customer service. Maintaining, promoting, and positioning our brand are important to expanding our customer base and will depend largely on the success of our marketing and merchandising efforts and our ability to provide consistent, high-quality customer experiences. We intend to continue making substantial investments in these areas in order to maintain and enhance our brand, and such investments may not be successful. Ineffective marketing, negative publicity, product diversion to unauthorized distribution channels, product or manufacturing defects, including defects that may cause fires or explosions, counterfeit products, unfair labor practices, and failure to protect the intellectual property rights in our brand are some of the potential threats to the strength of our brand, and those and other factors could rapidly and severely diminish customer confidence in us. Furthermore, these factors could cause our customers to lose the personal connection they feel with the Traeger brand. Moreover, the growing use of social and digital media by us, our customers and third parties increases the speed at and extent to which information or misinformation and opinions, including negative ones, can be shared. We believe that maintaining and enhancing our brand image in our current markets and in new markets where we have limited brand recognition is important to expanding our customer base. If we are unable to maintain or enhance our brand in current or new markets, our growth strategy and results of operations could be harmed.

Our wood pellets are combustible products. Fires and explosions have occurred at manufacturing facilities similar to ours, and fires have previously occurred at or near our wood pellet production facilities. As a result, our business could be adversely affected by these and other operational hazards and could suffer catastrophic loss due to unanticipated events such as explosions, fires, natural disasters or severe weather conditions. Severe weather, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, forest fires or other catastrophes, or climatic phenomena, such as drought, may impact our operations by causing weather-related damage to our wood pellet facilities and equipment. Such events may become more frequent and more severe as a result of climate change. Severe weather and other climate phenomena may also adversely affect the ability of our suppliers to provide us with the raw materials we require or the ability of vessels to load, transport, and unload our wood pellet products. In addition, our wood pellet facilities are subject to the risk of unexpected equipment failures. At our wood pellet facilities plants, our manufacturing processes are dependent upon critical pieces of equipment, and such equipment may, on occasion, be out of service as a result of such failures. As a result, we may experience material facility shutdowns or periods of reduced production, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Any interference with or curtailment of our wood pellet facilities and related production operations could result in a loss of productivity, an increase in our operating costs and decrease in revenue, which may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. In addition, we may not be fully insured against all risks incident to our wood pellet production operations, including the risk of our operations being interrupted due to severe weather and natural disasters. Furthermore, we may be unable to maintain or obtain insurance of the type and amount we desire at reasonable rates. As a result of market conditions, premiums and deductibles for certain of our insurance policies could escalate. In some instances, insurance could become unavailable or available only for reduced amounts of coverage. If we were to incur a significant liability for which we are not fully insured, it could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

We depend on the talents and continued efforts of our senior management and key employees. The loss of members of our management or key employees may disrupt our business and harm our results of operations. We do not maintain "key person" insurance for any of our executives or other employees. Furthermore, our ability to manage further expansion will require us to continue to attract, motivate, and retain additional qualified personnel. Competition for this type of personnel is intense, and we may not be successful in attracting, integrating, and retaining the personnel required to grow and operate our business effectively. As we continue to grow, and particularly in light of past reductions in headcount as part of our historical restructuring initiatives, we may find it difficult to maintain valuable aspects of our culture, to prevent a negative effect on employee morale or attrition beyond our planned reduction in headcount, and to attract competent personnel who are willing to embrace our culture. Any failure to preserve our culture could negatively affect our future success, including our ability to retain and recruit personnel and to effectively focus on and pursue our corporate objectives. There can be no assurance that our current management team or any new members of our management team will be able to successfully execute our business and operating strategies.

Our grills are produced by a limited number of third-party manufacturers. We face the risk that these third-party manufacturers may not produce and deliver our products on a timely basis or at all. Our reliance on a limited number of manufacturers for our products increases our risks, since we do not currently have alternative or replacement manufacturers for certain of our products beyond our existing manufacturers. In the event of interruption from our manufacturers or suppliers, we may not be able to increase capacity from other sources or develop alternate or secondary sources without incurring material additional costs and substantial delays, and we do not maintain sufficient inventory levels to mitigate the impact of such costs and delays. Further, certain of these manufacturers have developed specific processes and manufacturing procedures for certain of our products, and such processes and procedures may not be easily transferred to other manufacturers, if at all. Furthermore, we expect that as we continue to introduce new products and product enhancements, our manufacturing costs will grow increasingly more complex and the cost will continue to increase. We have experienced, and will likely continue to experience, certain operational difficulties with our manufacturers. These difficulties include reductions in the availability of production capacity, errors in complying with product specifications, insufficient quality control, failures to meet production deadlines, failure to achieve our product quality standards, increases in costs of materials, and manufacturing or other business interruptions. The ability of our manufacturers to effectively satisfy our production requirements could also be impacted by manufacturer financial difficulty or damage to their operations caused by fire, terrorist attack, riots, natural disaster, public health issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic (or other future pandemics or epidemics), or other events. The failure of any manufacturer or distributor to perform to our expectations could result in supply shortages or delays for certain products and harm our business. In addition, recent years have seen additional focus from stakeholders, including regulators and governments in certain jurisdictions, on ESG consideration in the supply chains of companies. Emerging legislation, including the proposed Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive in the EU, may introduce requirements on us to perform ESG due diligence of the parties operating in our supply chain to determine whether or not our products may lead to adverse ESG consequences. The United States has also adopted legislation restricting the use of certain suppliers, as well as products mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part from certain regions, due to ESG considerations. Such legislation may lead to increased costs for our company in sourcing materials for our products, and to the extent parties in our supply chain are seen to not meet certain standards of ESG performance, whether by customers, regulators or otherwise, this may lead to a requirement to change suppliers, reputational impacts to our company, or (in certain cases) import eligibility for certain of our products. If we experience significantly increased demand, or if we need to replace an existing manufacturer due to lack of performance or ESG considerations, we may be unable to supplement or replace manufacturing capacity on a timely basis or on terms that are acceptable to us, which may increase our costs, reduce our margins, and harm our ability to deliver our products on time. For certain of our products, it may take a significant amount of time to identify and qualify a manufacturer that has the capability and resources to produce our products to our specifications in sufficient volume and satisfy our service and quality control standards. Accordingly, a loss of any of our significant manufacturers, suppliers or distributors could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. The capacity of our manufacturers to produce our products is also dependent upon the availability of raw materials. Our manufacturers may not be able to obtain sufficient supply of raw materials, which could result in delays in deliveries of our products by our manufacturers or increased costs. Any shortage of raw materials or inability of a manufacturer to produce or ship our products in a timely manner, or at all, could impair our ability to ship orders of our products in a cost-efficient, timely manner and could cause us to miss the delivery requirements of our customers. As a result, we could experience cancellations of orders, refusals to accept deliveries, or reductions in our prices and margins, any of which could harm our financial performance, reputation, and results of operations.

The price and availability of raw materials and key components used to manufacture our products, including electronic components, such as integrated circuits, processors and system on chips, components built into our unique specifications or that are single sourced, as well as manufacturing equipment, tooling, and wood fibers, may fluctuate significantly. In addition, the cost of labor at our third-party manufacturers could increase significantly. For example, manufacturers in China have experienced increased costs in recent years due to shortages of labor and fluctuations of the Chinese yuan in relation to the U.S. dollar. Additionally, the cost of logistics and transportation fluctuates in large part due to the price of oil, global demand and other geopolitical factors. Any fluctuations in the cost and availability of any of our raw materials or other sourcing or transportation costs related to our raw materials or products could harm our gross margins (as was the case in 2021 due to increased freight rates and logistics costs) and our ability to meet customer demand. For example, disruptions to or increases in the cost of local, regional domestic or international transportation services for our products and other forms of infrastructure, such as electricity, due to shortages of vessels, barges, railcars or trucks, weather-related problems, flooding, droughts, accidents, mechanical difficulties, bankruptcy, strikes, lockouts, bottlenecks (such as the blockage of the Suez Canal in March 2021) or other events could increase our costs, temporarily impair our ability to deliver products to our customers on time or at all and might, in certain circumstances, constitute a force majeure event under our customer contracts, permitting our customers to suspend taking delivery of and paying for our products or resulting in a charge to us for our customers' lost profits as a result of our failure to timely deliver our products. Relatedly, some of our contracts with our large retail customers subject us to financial penalties if we fail to ship an order that is on time or in full. If we are unable to successfully mitigate a significant portion of these product cost increases, fluctuations or delays, our results of operations could be harmed. In addition, persistent disruptions in our access to infrastructure may force us to halt production as we reach storage capacity at our facilities. Accordingly, if the primary transportation services we use to transport our products are disrupted, and we are unable to find alternative transportation providers, it could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, business, and financial position.

We operate a global business and may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or government controlled entities. We are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA"), the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, the U.K. Bribery Act, and possibly other anti-bribery and anti-money laundering laws in countries in which we conduct activities. These laws generally prohibit companies and their employees and third-party intermediaries from corruptly promising, authorizing, offering, or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments of anything of value to government officials, political parties, and private-sector recipients for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business, directing business to any person, or securing any improper advantage. Certain laws, including the U.K. Bribery Act, also prohibit soliciting or receiving bribes or improper payments. In addition, U.S. public companies are required to maintain records that accurately and fairly represent their transactions and have an adequate system of internal accounting controls. In many foreign countries, including countries in which we may conduct business, it may be a local custom that businesses engage in practices that are prohibited by the FCPA or other applicable laws and regulations. We face significant risks if we or any of our directors, officers, employees, agents or other partners or representatives fail to comply with these laws and governmental authorities in the United States and elsewhere could seek to impose substantial civil and/or criminal fines and penalties which could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, results of operations, and financial condition. We have implemented an anti-corruption compliance program and policies, procedures and training designed to foster compliance with these laws. However, our employees, contractors, and agents, and companies to which we outsource certain of our business operations, may take actions in violation of our policies or applicable law. Any such violation could have an adverse effect on our reputation, business, results of operations, and prospects. Any violation of the FCPA, other applicable anti-corruption laws, or anti-money laundering laws could result in whistleblower complaints, adverse media coverage, investigations, loss of export privileges, severe criminal or civil sanctions and, in the case of the FCPA, suspension or debarment from U.S. government contracts, any of which could have a materially adverse effect on our reputation, business, results of operations, and prospects. In addition, responding to any enforcement action may result in a significant diversion of management's attention and resources and significant defense costs and other professional fees.

New income, sales, use, value-added or other tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be enacted at any time. Those enactments could harm our domestic and international business operations, and our business and financial performance. Further, existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be interpreted, changed, modified or applied adversely to us. These events could require us or our customers to pay additional tax amounts on a prospective or retroactive basis, as well as require us or our customers to pay fines and/or penalties and interest for past amounts deemed to be due. If we raise our prices to offset the costs of these changes, existing and potential future customers may elect not to purchase our products in the future. Additionally, new, changed, modified or newly interpreted or applied tax laws could increase our customers' and our compliance, operating and other costs, as well as the costs of our products. Further, these events could decrease the capital we have available to operate our business. Any or all of these events could harm our business and financial performance. For example, various legislative and regulatory actions and proposals, such as in the United States, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the EU, have increasingly focused on future tax reform and contemplate changes to long-standing tax principles, which could adversely affect our liquidity and results of operations. As a multinational organization, we may be subject to taxation in certain jurisdictions around the world with increasingly complex tax laws, the application of which can be uncertain. The amount of taxes we pay in these jurisdictions could increase substantially as a result of changes in the applicable tax principles, including increased tax rates, new tax laws or revised interpretations of existing tax laws and precedents, which could harm our liquidity and results of operations. In addition, the authorities in these jurisdictions could review our tax returns and impose additional tax, interest and penalties, and the authorities could claim that various withholding requirements apply to us or our subsidiaries or assert that benefits of tax treaties are not available to us or our subsidiaries, any of which could harm us and our results of operations.

We regularly collect, obtain, store, handle, transmit, use and otherwise process business information and information related to individuals, including from and about actual and prospective customers, as well as our employees, suppliers, and vendors in the course of conducting our business through our website, our app, and information technology systems. We also depend on a number of third party vendors in relation to the operation of our business, a number of which process data on our behalf. As such, we and our vendors are subject to numerous federal, state, and international data privacy and security laws, rules, regulations, industry standards and other requirements, including those that apply generally to the handling of information about individuals, and those that are specific to certain industries, sectors, contexts, or locations, governing the collection, use, disclosure, retention, security, transfer, storage, and other processing of personal data. These requirements, and their application, interpretation and amendment are constantly evolving and developing In the United States, the FTC and many state regulators are interpreting and enforcing federal and state consumer protection laws to impose standards for the online collection, use, dissemination, and security of data. Such standards require us to publish statements that describe how we handle personal data and choices individuals may have about the way we handle their personal data. If such information that we publish is considered untrue or inaccurate, we may be subject to government claims of unfair or deceptive trade practices, which could lead to significant liabilities and consequences. Moreover, according to the FTC, violating consumers' privacy rights or failing to take appropriate steps to keep consumers' personal data secure may constitute unfair acts or practices in or affecting commerce in violation of Section 5(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act. State consumer protection laws provide similar causes of action for unfair or deceptive practices. In addition, various federal and state legislative and regulatory bodies, or self-regulatory organizations, have (and may continue to) expanded current laws or regulations, enacted new laws or regulations or issued revised rules or guidance regarding privacy, data protection, consumer protection, and advertising, and as the regulatory environment related to information security, data collection and use, and privacy becomes increasingly rigorous, there are new and changing requirements applicable to our business. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA") requires covered companies to provide disclosures to California consumers and provide such consumers certain data protection and privacy rights, including the ability to opt-out of certain disclosure of personal data. The CCPA also provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for certain data breaches. This private right of action may increase the likelihood of, and risks associated with, data breach litigation. Moreover, the California Privacy Rights Act ("CPRA") took effect on January 1, 2023 and significantly modifies the CCPA, including by expanding consumers' rights with respect to certain sensitive personal data. The CPRA also creates a new state agency vested with authority to implement and enforce the CCPA and the CPRA. The enactment of the CCPA is prompting a wave of new legislation in a number of U.S. states which imposes, or has the potential to impose additional obligations on companies that collect, store, use, retain, disclose, transfer and otherwise process confidential, sensitive and personal data, and will continue to shape the data privacy environment nationally. For example, since the CCPA went into effect, comprehensive privacy statutes that share similarities with the CCPA are now in effect and enforceable in Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah, and will soon be enforceable in several other states as well. State laws are changing rapidly and there is discussion in Congress of a new federal data protection and privacy law to which we may become subject if it is enacted. Such legislation may add additional complexity, variation in requirements, restrictions and potential legal risk, and require additional investment in resources to compliance programs, could impact strategies and availability of previously useful data and could result in increased compliance costs and changes in business practices and policies. Further, in order to comply with the varying state laws around data breaches, we must maintain adequate security measures, which require significant investments in resources and ongoing attention. We are also subject to laws, regulations, and standards in many jurisdictions outside of the United States, which apply broadly to the collection, use, retention, security, disclosure, transfer and other processing of personal information. For example, in the European Economic Area, or EEA, the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") imposes stringent operational requirements for entities processing personal information and significant penalties for non-compliance. In particular, under the GDPR, fines of up to 20 million Euros or up to 4% of the annual global revenue of the noncompliant company, whichever is greater, could be imposed for violations of certain of the GDPR's requirements. Such penalties are in addition to any civil litigation claims by data subjects and other regulatory actions that may be taken by competent authorities. We are also subject to the UK GDPR and UK Data Protection Act of 2018, which retains the GDPR in the United Kingdom's national law and mirrors the fines under the GDPR. In addition, we are subject to evolving EU and UK privacy laws on cookies and e-marketing. In the EU and the UK, regulators are increasingly focusing on compliance with current national laws that implement the ePrivacy Directive, and which may be replaced by an EU regulation known as the ePrivacy Regulation, which will significantly increase fines for non-compliance. In the EU and the UK, informed consent is required for the placement of certain cookies or similar technologies on a customer's or user's device and for direct electronic marketing. The UK GDPR and the GDPR also impose conditions on obtaining valid consent, such as a prohibition on pre-checked consents and a requirement to ensure separate consents are sought for each type of cookie or similar technology. While the text of the ePrivacy Regulation is still under development, recent European court and regulators' decisions are driving increased attention to cookies and tracking technologies. If the trend of increasing enforcement by regulators of the strict approach to opt-in consent for all but essential use cases, this could lead to substantial costs, require significant systems changes, limit the effectiveness of our marketing activities, divert the attention of our technology personnel, adversely affect our margins, increase costs and subject us to additional liabilities. Regulation of cookies and similar technologies, and any decline of cookies or similar online tracking technologies as a means to identify and potentially target customers and users, may also lead to broader restrictions and impairments on our marketing and personalization activities and may materially adversely impact our efforts to understand our customers and users and our business, results of operations, and financial condition. In addition to the GDPR, we are also subject to laws in China. Under China's Cybersecurity Law, any collection, use, transfer and storage of personal information of a Chinese citizen through a network by the network operator should be based on the three principles of legitimacy, justification and necessity and requires the consent of the data subject. The rules, purposes, methods and ranges of such collection should also be disclosed to the data subject. China's data localization requirements are becoming increasingly common in sector-specific regulations. For example, China's Cybersecurity Law requires operators of critical information infrastructure ("CIIOs") to store personal information and important data collected and generated from the critical information infrastructure within China. Non-compliance with China's Cybersecurity Law can result in fines of up to RMB 100,000 for the relevant entity as well as for the personnel directly responsible. On September 14, 2022, the Cyberspace Administration of China ("CAC"), China's top cybersecurity regulator, released new amendments to China's Cybersecurity Law for public consultation and if the amendments are passed, the amended law will increase the penalties for violations of cybersecurity obligations under the Cybersecurity Law to up to RMB 50 million, in line with those under the Data Security Law and PIPL. Building on this, China's Data Security Law ("Data Security Law") became effective on September 1, 2021. The primary purpose of the Data Security Law is to regulate data activities, safeguard data security, promote data development and usage, protect individuals and entities' legitimate rights and interests, and safeguard state sovereignty, state security and development interests. The Data Security Law applies extraterritorially, and to a broad range of activities that involve "data" (not only personal or sensitive data). Under the Data Security Law, entities and individuals carrying out data activities must abide by various data security obligations. For example, the Data Security Law proposes to classify and protect data based on the importance of data to the state's economic development, as well as the degree of harm it will cause to national security, public interests, or legitimate rights and interests of individuals or organizations when such data is tampered with, destroyed, leaked, or illegally acquired or used. The appropriate level of protective measures is required to be taken for each respective class of data. The Data Security Law also echoes the data localization requirement in the Cybersecurity Law and requires important data to be stored locally in China. Such important data may only be transferred outside of China subject to compliance with certain data transfer restrictions, such as passing a security assessment organized by the relevant authorities. The Cybersecurity Review Measures, which took effect on February 15, 2022 in China, clarifies when entities must apply for a mandatory cybersecurity review from the Chinese government authorities. These circumstances include when (i) CIIOs purchase network products that may affect national security, (ii) when a network platform operator's data processing activities may affect national security, or (iii) when a network platform operator holds personal information of more than one million individuals and plans on listing publicly abroad (outside China). Network platform operators are not defined but is understood to be broadly interpreted to include all Internet platform operators or service providers, thus providing for a broad application. A mandatory cybersecurity review is likely to prolong the timeline of any contemplated listing timeline abroad and increase the regulatory compliance burden on entities that are subject to this requirement. Additionally, on August 20, 2021, China announced the Personal Information Protection Law ("PIPL"), which took effect on November 1, 2021. The PIPL is intended to clarify the scope of application, the definitions of personal information and sensitive personal information, the legality of personal information processing and the basic requirements of notice and consent, among other things. The PIPL also sets out data localization requirements for CIIOs and personal information processors who process personal information above a certain threshold prescribed by the relevant authorities. The PIPL also includes a list of rules which must be complied with prior to the transfer of personal information outside of China, such as compliance with a security assessment or certification by an agency designated by the relevant authorities or entering into standard form model contracts approved by the relevant authorities with the overseas recipient. On July 7, 2022, the Cyberspace Administration of China (the "CAC") issued Security Assessment Measures for Outbound Data Transfers, which became effective on September 1, 2022. The Security Assessment Measures for Outbound Data Transfers clarifies the security assessment requirement under the PIPL and requires a data processor to apply for the security assessment organized by the CAC under any of the following circumstances before the information is transferred outbound: (i) where a data processor provides key data overseas, (ii) critical information infrastructure operator and personal information processors who process more than 1 million individuals personal information; (iii) where a data processor has cumulatively provided personal information of over 100,000 individuals' or sensitive personal information of over 10,000 individuals in total abroad since January 1 of the previous year. Additionally, on November 18, 2022, the CAC and the State Administration of Market Regulation issued the Implementation Rules for Personal Information Protection Certification which apply with immediate effect and which provide important guidance on obtaining a personal information certification for lawful cross-border transfer of personal information under the PIPL. The CAC published the Measures on Standard Contract for Cross-border Transfer of Personal Information (effective on June 1, 2023) and the Guidelines on Filing the Standard Contract for the Export of Personal Information on February 24, 2023 and May 30, 2023, respectively – these provide important guidance on relying on the standard contract for transferring personal information out of the People's Republic of China and on its filing requirement. Notably, the PIPL, similar to the GDPR, applies extraterritorially. Failure to comply with PIPL can result in fines of up to RMB 50 million or 5% of the prior year's total annual revenue for the personal information processor and/or a suspension of services or data processing activities. Other potential penalties include a fine of up to RMB 1 million on the person in charge or directly responsible personnel and, in serious cases, individuals and entities may be exposed to criminal liabilities under other local Chinese law, such as the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China. The PIPL also prohibits responsible personnel for violations of the PIPL from holding high level management or data protection officer positions in relevant enterprises. In addition to China's Cybersecurity Law, the Data Security Law and the PIPL, the relevant government authorities of the People Republic of China promulgated several regulations or released a number of draft regulations for public comments which are designed to provide further implemental guidance in accordance with the laws mentioned above. We cannot predict what impact the new laws and regulations or the increased costs of compliance, if any, will have on our operations in China, in particular the Data Security Law or PIPL, or the increased costs of compliance, if any, will have on our operations in China due to their recent enactment and the limited guidance available, particularly on PIPL, which entities are awaiting further guidance on. It is also generally unclear how the laws will be interpreted and enforced in practice by the relevant government authorities as often the above mentioned laws are drafted broadly and thus leaves great discretion to the relevant government authorities to exercise. Finally, we make public statements about our use and disclosure of personal information through our privacy policy, information provided on our website and press statements. Any failure or perceived failure by us to ensure that our public statements are complete, accurate and fully implemented, may result in regulatory investigations and enforcement, claims or proceedings, fines and penalties, and negative reputational impacts or other legal action if such policies or statements are found to be deceptive, unfair or misrepresentative of our actual practices. In addition, from time to time, concerns may be expressed about whether our products and services compromise the data privacy of our users and others. Any concerns about our data privacy and security practices (even if unfounded), or any failure, real or perceived, by us to comply with our posted privacy policies or public statements or with any legal or regulatory requirements, standards, certifications or orders or other privacy or consumer protection-related laws and regulations applicable to us, may result in regulatory investigations and enforcement, claims or proceedings, fines and penalties, and negative reputational impacts and could cause our users to reduce their use of our products and services. Any or all of the foregoing could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. We may be subject to claims that we have violated applicable laws or codes of conduct, and there is no assurance that we will be able to successfully defend against such claims or that we will not be subject to significant fines and penalties in the event of non-compliance. Additionally, in the United States, to the extent multiple state-level laws are introduced with inconsistent or conflicting standards and there is no federal law to preempt such laws, compliance with such laws could be difficult and costly to achieve and we could be subject to fines and penalties in the event of non-compliance. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with applicable privacy, security, and data protection laws, rules, regulations, and standards, or with other obligations to which we may be or may become subject, may result in proceedings, investigation, or actions against us by individuals, consumer rights groups governmental entities or regulators. We could incur significant costs in investigating and defending such claims and, if found liable, pay significant damages, fines, penalties, or other liabilities or result in orders or consent decrees forcing us to modify our business practices. As a result, we may incur significant costs to comply with laws regarding the protection and unauthorized disclosure of personal information, which could also negatively impact our operations, resulting in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Any such action could be expensive to defend, damage our reputation and materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

We cannot be certain that United States or foreign patents or patent applications of other companies do not exist or will not be issued that would prevent us from commercializing our products. Third parties may sue us for allegedly infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating their patent or other intellectual property rights. Intellectual property litigation is time consuming and costly. If we do not prevail in litigation, depending on the litigant, in addition to any damages we might have to pay, we could be required to cease the infringing activity or obtain a license requiring us to make royalty payments or agree to other ongoing obligations. It is possible that a required license may not be available to us on commercially acceptable terms, if at all. In addition, a required license may be non-exclusive, and therefore our competitors may have access to the same intellectual property rights licensed to us. If we fail to obtain a required license or are unable to design around a third party's patent or other intellectual property rights, we may be unable to make use of some of the affected products, or their features, which could reduce our revenues and adversely affect our business. The defense costs and settlements for patent infringement litigation are not covered by insurance. Patent infringement litigation is costly and can take years to resolve. If we are not successful in our defenses or are not successful in obtaining dismissals of any such litigation and/or subsequent appeals, legal fees or settlement costs could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

Our business relies on computer systems, hardware, software, technology infrastructure and online sites and networks for both internal and external operations that are critical to our business (collectively, "IT Systems"). We own and manage some of these IT Systems but also rely on third parties for a range of IT Systems and related products and services, including but not limited to cloud computing services. Our ability to effectively manage and maintain our inventory and internal reports, and to ship products to customers and invoice them on a timely basis, depends significantly on our enterprise resource planning, warehouse management, and other IT Systems, including those operated by certain of our third-party partners. We also heavily rely on IT Systems to process financial and accounting information for financial reporting purposes. Any of these IT Systems could fail or experience a service interruption for a number of reasons, including human or technological error, malicious code embedded in open-source software, misconfigurations, "bugs" or other vulnerabilities in commercial software that is integrated into our (or our suppliers' or service providers') IT Systems, products or services, or disasters or our failure to properly maintain IT System redundancy or protect, repair, maintain or upgrade our IT Systems. The failure of our or our third-party partners' IT Systems to operate effectively or to integrate with other systems, or a breach in security of these IT Systems, could cause delays in product fulfillment and reduced efficiency of our operations, which could materially negatively impact our business, reputation, results of operations, and financial results. If we or our third-party partners experienced any significant disruption to our IT Systems that we are unable to mitigate, our ability to timely report our financial results could be impacted, which could negatively impact our stock price. We also communicate electronically throughout the world with our employees and with third parties, such as customers, suppliers, vendors and consumers. A service interruption or shutdown could have a materially adverse impact on our operating activities and could result in material financial, reputational, competitive, and business harm. Incident response, remediation and repair of any failure, problem or breach of our key IT Systems or future compliance costs could require significant capital investments, which could materially adversely affect our business.

We sell and distribute our products in many key international markets in Europe, North America, and elsewhere around the world. These activities have resulted and will continue to result in investments in inventory, accounts receivable, employees, corporate infrastructure and facilities. In addition, we source most of our products through manufacturing relationships involving suppliers and vendors located outside of the United States. The operation of foreign distribution in our international markets, as well as the management of relationships with manufacturers and foreign suppliers, will continue to require the dedication of management and other resources. As a result of this international business, we are exposed to increased risks inherent in conducting business outside of the United States. These risks include the following: - adverse changes in foreign currency exchange rates can have a significant effect upon our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows;- increased difficulty in protecting our intellectual property rights and trade secrets, including litigation costs and the outcome of such litigation;- increased exposure to events that could impair our ability to operate internationally with third parties such as problems with such third parties' operations, finances, insolvency, labor relations, manufacturing capabilities, costs, insurance, natural disasters or other catastrophic events;- unexpected legal or government action or changes in legal or regulatory requirements;- social, economic or political instability, including the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas;- potential negative consequences from changes to taxation or tariff policies;- the effects of any anti-American sentiments on our brands or sales of our products;- increased difficulty in ensuring compliance by employees, agents and contractors with our policies as well as with the laws of multiple jurisdictions, including but not limited to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act 2010, international environmental, health, and safety laws, and increasingly complex regulations relating to the conduct of international commerce, including import/export laws and regulations, economic sanctions laws and regulations and trade controls;- increased difficulty in controlling and monitoring foreign operations from the United States, including increased difficulty in identifying and recruiting qualified personnel for our foreign operations; and - increased exposure to interruptions in land, air carrier, or vessel shipping services. We have limited experience with international regulatory environments and market practices and may not be able to penetrate or successfully operate in any foreign markets we choose to enter. In addition, we may incur significant expenses as a result of our continued international expansion, and we may not be successful. We may face limited brand recognition in certain parts of the world that could lead to non-acceptance or delayed acceptance of our products and services by consumers in new markets. We may also face challenges to acceptance of our products and content in new markets. Our failure to successfully manage these risks could harm our international operations and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

As our international business grows, our results of operations could be adversely impacted by changes in foreign currency exchange rates, such as the British Pound and the Canadian Dollar, and we may transact in more foreign currencies in the future. Revenues and certain expenses in markets outside of the United States are recognized in local foreign currencies, and we are exposed to potential gains or losses from the translation of those amounts into U.S. dollars for consolidation into our financial statements. Similarly, we are exposed to gains and losses resulting from currency exchange rate fluctuations on transactions generated by our foreign subsidiaries in currencies other than their local currencies. In addition, the business of our independent manufacturers in China, Taiwan, and Vietnam may also be disrupted by currency exchange rate fluctuations by making their purchases of raw materials more expensive and more difficult to finance. Changes in the value of foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar can affect our revenue and results of operations. As we increase the extent of our international operations, such foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations could make it more difficult to detect underlying trends in our business and results of operations, such as our margins and cash flows. From time to time, we use hedging strategies to reduce our exposure to currency fluctuations and may continue to use derivative instruments, such as foreign currency forward and option contracts, to hedge certain exposures to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. Given the volatility of exchange rates, there can be no assurance that we will be able to effectively manage our currency transaction risks. The use of such hedging activities may not offset any or more than a portion of the adverse financial effects of unfavorable movements in foreign exchange rates over the limited time the hedges are in place and may introduce additional risks if we are unable to structure effective hedges with such instruments.