Despegar (DESP) Risk Factors

We are, and may be in the future, involved in various legal proceedings relating to allegations of our failure to comply with consumer protection, labor, tax or antitrust regulations, that could involve claims or sanctions for substantial amounts of money or for other relief or that might necessitate changes to our business or operations. Our websites contain information about hotels, flights, popular vacation destinations and other travel-related topics. It is possible that if any information, accessible on our websites, contains errors or false or misleading information, third parties could take action against us for losses incurred in connection with the use of such information. In addition, because consumer protection laws in many of our markets provide for joint liability, travel customers may bring claims against us for a failure or deficiencies in the provision of a travel product or service by one of our suppliers that is outside of our control. The defense of any of these actions is, and may continue to be, both time-consuming and expensive. We cannot assure you that we will prevail in these legal proceedings or in any future legal proceedings and if such disputes were to result in an unfavorable outcome, it could result in reputational damage and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For a discussion of certain key legal proceedings relating to us, see "Item 4. Information on the Company - Business Overview - Legal Proceedings."

In our business, we use personal information, card payment information and other consumer data from users of our website and mobile applications. There are numerous laws regarding privacy and the storing, sharing, use, processing, transfer, disclosure and protection of personal information, card payment information and other consumer data, the scope of which are changing, subject to differing interpretations, and may be inconsistent between countries or conflict with other rules. We strive to comply with all applicable laws, policies, legal obligations and industry codes of conduct relating to privacy and data protection. It is possible, however, that these obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or the practices of the company. Any failure or perceived failure by us, or our service providers, to comply with the privacy policies, privacy-related obligations to users or other third parties, or privacy related legal obligations, or any compromise of security that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of personally identifiable information, payment card information or other consumer data, may result in governmental enforcement actions, litigation or public statements against the Company by consumer advocacy groups or others and could cause our travel customers and members to lose trust in our Company, as well as subject us to bank fines, penalties or increased transaction costs, all of which could have an adverse effect on our business. The regulatory framework for privacy issues is currently in flux and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Practices regarding the collection, use, storage, transmission and security of personal information by companies operating over the internet have recently come under increased public scrutiny. Countries in Latin America are increasingly implementing new privacy regulations, resulting in additional compliance burdens and uncertainty as to how some of these laws will be interpreted.

Our business is significantly affected by the trends that occur in the travel industry. As the travel industry is highly sensitive to business and personal discretionary spending levels, it tends to decline during general economic downturns. Trends or events that tend to reduce travel and are likely to reduce our revenue include: -   health-related risks, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, or future outbreaks of Zika virus, H1N1 influenza, Ebola virus, yellow fever, avian flu, or any other serious contagious diseases;-   terrorist attacks or threats of terrorist attacks or wars;-   fluctuations in currency exchange rates;-   increased prices in the airline ticketing, hotel, or other travel-related sectors;-   significant changes in oil prices;-   travel-related strikes or labor unrest, bankruptcies or liquidations;-   travel-related accidents or the grounding of aircraft due to safety or other concerns;-   political unrest;-   high levels of crime;-   natural disasters or severe weather conditions, including volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, flooding or earthquakes;-   changes in immigration policy; and -   travel restrictions or other security procedures implemented in connection with any major events, particularly those that affect travel by Latin Americans within their respective countries, across the region and outbound from the region to the rest of the world. We could be severely and adversely affected by declines or disruptions in the travel industry and, in many cases, have little or no control over the occurrence of such events. Such events could result in a decrease in demand for our travel services. Any decrease in demand, depending on the scope and duration, could significantly and adversely affect our business and financial performance over the short and long term.

The travel market in Latin America and worldwide is intensely competitive and rapidly evolving. Factors affecting our competitive success include, among other things, price, availability and breadth of choice of travel services and products, brand recognition, customer service, fees charged to travelers, ease of use, accessibility, consumer payment options and reliability. We currently compete with both established and emerging providers of travel services and products, including regional offline travel agency chains and tour operators, global OTAs with presence in Latin America and smaller, country-specific online and offline travel agencies and tour operators. In addition, our travel customers have the option to book travel directly with airlines, hotels and other travel service providers who are increasingly focused on further refining their online offerings. Large, established internet search engines have also launched applications offering travel itineraries in destinations around the world, and meta-search companies who can aggregate travel search results also compete against us for travel customers. We also face competition from Airbnb and other providers acting in the alternative accommodations space. In addition, we face price competition from new entrants that offer discounted rates and other incentives from time to time, as well as social media channels that market travel products and experiences. Some of our competitors have significantly greater financial and other resources than us. From time to time we may be required to reduce service fees and revenue margins in order to compete effectively and maintain or gain travel customers, brand awareness and supplier relationships. Further, we may also face increased competition from new entrants in our industry. We cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully compete against existing or new competitors. If we are not able to compete effectively, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected. Some travel suppliers are seeking to decrease their reliance on distribution intermediaries like us by promoting direct distribution channels. Many airlines, hotels, car rental companies and tour operators have call centers and have established their own travel distribution websites and mobile applications. From time to time, travel suppliers offer advantages, such as bonus loyalty awards and lower transaction fees or discounted prices, when their services and products are purchased from supplier-related channels. We also compete with competitors which may offer less content, functionality and marketing reach but at a relatively lower cost to suppliers. If our access to supplier-provided content or features were to be diminished either relative to our competitors or in absolute terms or if we are unable to compete effectively with travel supplier-related channels or other competitors, our business could be materially and adversely affected.

Widespread adoption of mobile devices, coupled with the web browsing functionality and development of apps available on these devices, is driving substantial online traffic and commerce to mobile platforms. We have experienced a significant shift of business to mobile platforms and our suppliers are also seeing a rapid shift of traffic to mobile platforms. Many of our competitors and new market entrants are offering mobile apps for travel products and other functionality, including proprietary last-minute discounts for accommodation reservations. Advertising and distribution opportunities may be more limited on mobile devices given their smaller screen sizes. The average price of travel products purchased in mobile transactions may be less than a typical desktop transaction due to different consumer purchasing patterns. Further, given the device sizes and technical limitations of tablets and smartphones, mobile consumers may not be willing to download multiple apps from multiple companies providing a similar service and instead prefer to use one or a limited number of apps for their mobile travel activity. As a result, the consumer experience with mobile apps as well as brand recognition and loyalty are likely to become increasingly important. Our mobile offerings drive a material and increasing share of our business. We believe that mobile bookings present an opportunity for growth and are necessary to maintain and grow our business as consumers increasingly turn to mobile devices instead of a desktop computer. As a result, it is increasingly important for us to develop and maintain effective mobile apps and websites optimized for mobile devices to provide consumers with an appealing, easy-to-use mobile experience. If we are unable to continue to innovate rapidly and create new, user-friendly and differentiated mobile offerings and advertise and distribute on these platforms efficiently and effectively, or if our mobile offerings are not used by consumers, we could lose considerable market share to existing competitors or new entrants and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. Moreover, we are dependent on the compatibility of our app with popular mobile operating systems that we do not control, such as Android and iOS, and any changes in such systems that degrade our products' functionality or give preferential treatment to competitive products could adversely affect the usage of our app on mobile devices. Additionally, in order to deliver high quality mobile products, it is important that our products work well with a range of mobile technologies, systems, networks, and standards that we do not control. We may not be successful in developing relationships with key participants in the mobile industry or in developing products that operate effectively with these technologies, systems, networks, or standards. In the event that it is more difficult for our users to access and use our app on their mobile devices, or if our users choose not to access or use our app on their mobile devices or use mobile products that do not offer access to our app, our user growth and user engagement could be harmed.

Our websites and mobile applications rely on brands, domain names, technology and content. We protect our brands and domain names by relying on trademark and domain name registration in accordance with laws in Latin America. We have also entered into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and certain contractors, as well as confidentiality agreements with certain suppliers and strategic partners, in order to protect our technology and content. We own our technology platform, which is comprised of applications that we develop in-house using primarily open source software. We have not registered our technology, however, because we believe it would be difficult to replicate and that it is adequately protected by the agreements we have in place. Additionally, our technology is constantly evolving and any registration may run the risk of protecting outdated technology. Even with these precautions, it may be possible for another party to copy or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property without our authorization or to develop similar intellectual property independently. Effective trademark protection may not be available in every jurisdiction in which our services are made available, and policing unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult and expensive. Any misappropriation or violation of our rights could have a material adverse effect on our business. Furthermore, we may need to go to court or other tribunals to enforce our intellectual property rights or to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. These proceedings might result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management attention. We currently license from third parties some of the technologies, trademarks and content incorporated into our websites. As we continue to introduce new services that incorporate new technologies, third parties' trademarks and content, we may be required to license additional technologies, third parties' trademarks and content. We cannot be sure that such technologies and content licenses will be available on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. Third parties may assert that our services, products and technology, including software and processes, violate their intellectual property rights. As competition in our industry increases and the functionality of technology offerings further overlaps, such claims and counterclaims could increase. We cannot assure you that we do not or will not inadvertently infringe on the intellectual property rights of third parties. Any intellectual property claim against us, regardless of its merit, could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations and could be expensive and time consuming to defend. Our failure to prevail in such matters could result in loss of intellectual property rights, judgments awarding substantial damages and injunctive or other equitable relief against us, or require us to delay or cease offering services or reduce features in our services.

We rely on information technology systems, including the internet and third-party hosted services, to support a variety of business processes including booking transactions, and activities and to store sensitive data, including our proprietary business information and that of our suppliers, personally identifiable information and other information of our travel customers and employees and data with respect to invoicing and the collection of payments, accounting and procurement activities. In addition, we rely on our information technology systems to process financial information and results of operations for internal reporting purposes and to comply with financial reporting, legal, and tax requirements. The risk of a cybersecurity-related attack, intrusion, or disruption, including by criminal organizations, hacktivists, foreign governments, and terrorists, is persistent. We have experienced and may in the future experience system interruptions that make some or all of these systems unavailable or prevent us from efficiently fulfilling orders or providing services to third parties. Interruptions of this nature could include security intrusions and attacks on our systems for fraud or service interruption. Significant interruptions, outages or delays in our internal systems, or systems of third parties that we rely upon-including multiple co-location providers for data centers, cloud computing providers for application hosting, and network access providers-and network access, or deterioration in the performance of such systems, would impair our ability to process transactions, decrease our quality of service that we can offer to our travel customers, damage our reputation and brands, increase our costs and/or cause losses. Potential security breaches to our systems or the systems of our service providers, whether resulting from internal or external sources, could significantly harm our business. We devote significant resources to network security, monitoring and testing, employee training, and other security measures, but we cannot assure you that these measures will prevent all possible security breaches or attacks. A party, whether internal or external, that is able to circumvent our security systems could misappropriate travel customers' or employees' information, proprietary information or other business and financial data or cause significant interruptions in our operations. We may need to expend significant resources to protect against security breaches or to address problems caused by breaches, and reductions in website availability could cause a loss of substantial business volume during the occurrence of any such incident. Because the techniques used to sabotage security change frequently, often are not recognized until launched against a target and may originate from less regulated and remote areas around the world, we may be unable to proactively address these techniques or to implement adequate preventive measures. We have obtained cyber insurance, however we cannot assure you that our insurance will be sufficient to protect against our losses or will cover all potential incidents. Moreover, security breaches could result in negative publicity and damage to our reputation, exposure to risk of loss or litigation and possible liability due to regulatory penalties and sanctions or pursuant to our contractual arrangements with payment card processors for associated expenses and penalties. Security breaches could also cause travel customers and potential users and our suppliers to lose confidence in our security, which would have a negative effect on the value of our brands. Failure to adequately protect against attacks or intrusions, whether for our own systems or those of our suppliers, could expose us to security breaches that could have an adverse impact on our financial performance. In addition, we cannot assure you that our backup systems or contingency plans will sustain critical aspects of our operations or business processes in all circumstances, many other systems are not fully redundant and our disaster recovery or business continuity planning may not be sufficient. Fire, flood, power loss, telecommunications failure, break-ins, earthquakes, acts of war or terrorism, acts of God, computer viruses, electronic intrusion attempts from both external and internal sources and similar events or disruptions may damage or impact or interrupt computer or communications systems or business processes at any time. Although we have put measures in place to protect certain portions of our facilities and assets, any of these events could cause system interruption, delays and loss of critical data, and could prevent us from providing services to our travel customers and/or third parties for a significant period of time. Remediation may be costly and we may not have adequate insurance to cover such costs. Moreover, the costs of enhancing infrastructure to attain improved stability and redundancy may be time consuming and expensive and may require resources and expertise that are difficult to obtain.

From time to time, we enter into derivative transactions to manage our risks associated with currency exchange rates and interest rates. Significant changes may occur in our portfolio of derivative instruments due to increasing volatility and the fluctuation of the currencies of certain countries where we operate, including Brazil and Argentina, against the dollar and volatility in the relevant interest rates, and we may incur net losses from our derivative financial instruments. The fair value of the derivative instruments fluctuates over time as a result of the effects of future interest rates and exchange rates. These values must be analyzed in connection with the underlying transactions and as a part of our total average exposure to interest rate and exchange rate fluctuations. It is difficult to predict the magnitude of the risk resulting from derivative instruments because the appreciation is imprecise and variable. We may be adversely affected by our derivative financial positions.