Peloton Interactive (PTON) Risk Factors

The connected fitness and wellness market is relatively new and grew rapidly over the last several years, and it is uncertain whether it will resume high levels of growth and achieve wide market acceptance. Our success depends substantially on the willingness of consumers to widely adopt our products and services. We have had to educate consumers about our products and services through significant investment and provide quality content that is superior to the content and experiences provided by our competitors. Additionally, the fitness and wellness market at large is heavily saturated, and the demand for and market acceptance of new products and services in the market is uncertain. It is difficult to predict the future growth rates, if any, and size of our market. We cannot assure you that our market will develop or be sustained at current levels, that the public's interest in connected fitness and wellness will continue, or that our products and services will be widely adopted. If our market does not develop, develops more slowly than expected, or becomes saturated with competitors, or if our products and services do not achieve or sustain market acceptance, our business, financial condition, and operating results would be adversely affected.

Our customers pay for our products and services using a variety of different payment methods, including credit and debit cards, gift cards, lines of credit, "buy now pay later" financial products, and online wallets. We rely on internal systems as well as those of third parties to process payment. Acceptance and processing of these payment methods are subject to certain rules and regulations and require payment of interchange and other fees. To the extent there are disruptions in our payment processing systems, increases in payment processing fees, material changes in the payment ecosystem, such as large re-issuances of payment cards, delays in receiving payments from payment processors, or changes to rules or regulations concerning payment processing, our revenue, operating expenses and results of operation could be adversely impacted. We leverage our third-party payment processors to bill Subscribers on our behalf. If these third parties become unwilling or unable to continue processing payments on our behalf, we would have to find alternative methods of collecting payments, which could adversely impact Subscriber acquisition and retention. In addition, from time to time, we encounter fraudulent use of payment methods, which could impact our results of operation, and if not adequately controlled and managed, could create negative consumer perceptions of our service.

We offer complex hardware and software products and services that may be alleged, and have been alleged, to be affected by design and manufacturing defects or potential product safety issues. Sophisticated operating system software and applications, such as those offered by us, often have issues that can unexpectedly interfere with the intended operation of hardware or software products. Defects may also exist in components and products that we source from third parties, or may arise from upgrades or changes to hardware that we or our third-party manufacturing partners may make in the ordinary course of a product's lifecycle. Actual or perceived defects may not be identified until after a product is in market. Any defects could impact our customer experience, tarnish our brand reputation or make our products and services unsafe and create a risk of environmental or property damage and/or personal injury. Our products have been, and may in the future be, subject to product liability and product recall. We have been and may in the future be exposed to product-related liabilities, which in some instances have resulted in and may result in product redesigns, product recalls, or other corrective action. For example, in May 2021 we initiated a voluntary recall of our Tread+ product in coordination with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission ("CPSC") in response to reports of injuries associated with our Tread+ and in May 2023, in collaboration with the CPSC, we announced a voluntary recall of the original Peloton model Bikes (not Bike+) seat posts sold in the U.S. from January 2018 to May 2023. As a result, we are now and may in the future be involved in class action litigation. We may also in the future be involved in product recalls for which we generally have not purchased insurance, and may be involved in other litigation or events for which insurance products may have limitations. We are presently subject to class action litigation, private personal injury claims and other regulatory proceedings, government inquiries and investigations related to the Tread+ and Bike recalls and other matters that, regardless of their merits, could harm our reputation, divert management's attention from our operations, and result in substantial legal fees, judgments, fines, penalties, and other costs. Given that such proceedings are subject to uncertainty, there can be no assurance that such legal and regulatory proceedings, either individually or in the aggregate, will not have a material adverse effect on our stock price, business, results of operations, financial condition or cash flows. Furthermore, the occurrence of real or perceived defects in any of our products, now or in the future, could result in additional negative publicity, regulatory investigations, recalls, or lawsuits filed against us, particularly if Members or others who use or purchase our Connected Fitness Products are injured. Even if injuries are not the result of any defects, if they are perceived to be, we may incur expenses to defend or settle any claims or government inquiries and our brand and reputation may be harmed. See Note 13 - Commitments and Contingencies in the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and the section titled "Legal Proceedings" in Part I, Item 3 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. In addition, from time to time, we may experience outages, service slowdowns, hardware issues, or software errors that affect our ability to deliver our fitness and wellness programming through our Connected Fitness platform. As a result, our services may not perform as anticipated and may not meet our expectations, or legal or regulatory requirements, or the expectations of our Members. There can be no assurance that we will be able to timely detect and fix all issues and defects in the hardware, software, and services we offer. Failure to do so could result in widespread technical and performance issues affecting our products and services and could lead to claims or investigations against us. Design and manufacturing defects, real or perceived, and claims or investigations related thereto, may subject us to judgments or settlements that result in damages materially in excess of the limits of our insurance coverage. In addition, we may be exposed to recalls, product replacements or modifications, write-offs of inventory, property and equipment, or intangible assets, and significant warranty and other expenses such as litigation costs and regulatory fines. If we cannot successfully defend any large claim or potential liability, maintain our general liability insurance on acceptable terms, or maintain adequate coverage against potential claims, our financial results could be adversely impacted. Further, quality problems could adversely affect the experience for users of our products and services, and result in harm to our reputation, loss of competitive advantage, poor market acceptance, reduced demand for our products and services, delay in new product and service introductions, and lost revenue.

We have outsourced our cloud infrastructure to third-party providers, and we currently use these providers to host and stream our services and content. We are therefore vulnerable to service interruptions experienced by these providers, and we expect to experience interruptions, delays, or outages in service availability in the future due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human, hardware or software errors, hosting disruptions, and capacity constraints. Outages and capacity constraints could arise from a number of causes such as technical failures, natural disasters and global pandemics, fraud, or security attacks. In addition, hosting costs will increase as membership engagement grows, which could harm our business if we are unable to grow our revenue faster than the cost of using these services or the services of similar providers. Additionally, we rely on last mile partners for the delivery and installation of our products and have increased our reliance on third-party Member support partners. The level or quality of service provided by these providers and partners, or regular or prolonged delays or interruptions in that service, could also affect the use of, and our Members' satisfaction with, our products and services and could harm our business and reputation. Furthermore, some providers, such as shipping vendors, have broad discretion to change and interpret the terms of service and other policies with respect to us, and those actions may be unfavorable to our business operations. Our providers may also take actions beyond our control that could seriously harm our business, including discontinuing or limiting our access to one or more services, increasing pricing terms, terminating or seeking to terminate our contractual relationship altogether, or altering how we are able to process data in a way that is unfavorable or costly to us. Although we expect that we could obtain similar services from other third parties, if our arrangements with our current providers were terminated, we could experience interruptions on our platform and in our ability to make our content available to Members, as well as delays and additional expenses in arranging for alternative cloud infrastructure services. Any of these factors could further reduce our revenue, subject us to liability, and cause our Subscribers to decline to renew their subscriptions, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results. In addition, customers of certain of our providers have been subject to litigation by third parties claiming that the service and basic HTTP functions infringe their patents. If we become subject to such claims, although we expect our provider to indemnify us with respect to at least a portion of such claims, the litigation may be time consuming, divert management's attention, and, if our provider failed to indemnify us, adversely impact our operating results.

Accurately forecasting and meeting customer demand partially depends on our ability to obtain timely and adequate delivery of components for our Connected Fitness Products. All of the components that go into the manufacturing of our Connected Fitness Products are sourced from a limited number of third-party suppliers, and some of these components are provided by a single supplier. Our contract manufacturers generally purchase these components on our behalf, subject to certain approved supplier lists, and we do not have long-term arrangements with most of our component suppliers. We are therefore subject to the risk of shortages and long lead times in the supply of these components and the risk that our suppliers discontinue or modify components used in our Connected Fitness Products. In addition, the lead times associated with certain components are lengthy and preclude rapid changes in design, quantities, and delivery schedules. Our ability to meet temporary unforeseen increases or decreases in demand has been, and may in the future be, impacted by our reliance on the availability of components from these sub-suppliers. We may in the future experience component shortages, and the predictability of the availability of these components may be limited. In the event of a component shortage or supply interruption from suppliers of these components, we may not be able to develop alternate sources in a timely manner. Developing alternate sources of supply for these components may be time-consuming, difficult, and costly, and we may not be able to source these components on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all, which may undermine our ability to fill our orders in a timely manner. Any interruption or delay in the supply of any of these parts or components, or the inability to obtain these parts or components from alternate sources at acceptable prices and within a reasonable amount of time, would harm our ability to meet our scheduled Connected Fitness Product deliveries to our customers. Conversely, in periods when we experience a decrease in demand for our products and an increase in inventory, we may be unable to renegotiate our agreements or purchase commitments with existing suppliers or partners on mutually acceptable terms, which could result in inventory write-offs, storage costs for excess inventory, or litigation. See "- Our operating results have been, and could in the future be, adversely affected if we are unable to accurately forecast consumer demand for our products and services and adequately manage our inventory." Moreover, volatile economic conditions have made it and may continue to make it more likely that our suppliers and logistics providers may be unable to timely deliver supplies, or at all, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to timely locate alternative suppliers of comparable quality at an acceptable price. In addition, international supply chains have been and may continue to be impacted by events outside of our control and limit our ability to procure timely delivery of supplies or finished goods and services. Since the beginning of 2018, importing and exporting has involved more risk, as there has been increasing rhetoric, in some cases coupled with legislative or executive action, from several U.S. and foreign leaders regarding tariffs against foreign imports of certain materials. Additional measures have targeted forced labor concerns in connection with certain products and textiles that can be associated with customs detentions and delayed entry of goods. Several of the components that go into the manufacturing of our Connected Fitness Products are sourced internationally, including from China, from where imports on specified products are subject to tariffs by the United States following the U.S. Trade Representative Section 301 Investigation. These issues appear to have been and could be further exacerbated by any global supply chain delays, such as global shipping disruptions. We have seen, and may continue to see, increased congestion and new import/export restrictions implemented at ports that we rely on for our business. In the past, we have had to secure alternative transportation, such as air freight, or use alternative routes, at increased costs to run our supply chain. These tariffs and other supply chain issues have an impact on our component costs and have the potential to have an even greater impact depending on the outcome of the current trade negotiations, which have been protracted and recently resulted in increases in U.S. tariff rates on specified products from China. Increases in our component costs could have a material effect on our gross margins. The loss of a significant supplier, an increase in component costs, or delays or disruptions in the delivery of components, could adversely impact our ability to generate future revenue and earnings and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results.

There is considerable patent and other intellectual property development activity in our market. Litigation, based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights, is frequent in the fitness and technology industries. Furthermore, it is common for individuals and groups to purchase patents and other intellectual property assets for the purpose of making claims of infringement to extract licenses and/or settlements from companies like ours. Our use of third-party content, including music content, software, and other intellectual property rights may be subject to claims of infringement or misappropriation. We cannot guarantee that our internally developed or acquired technologies and content do not or will not infringe the intellectual property rights of others. From time to time, our competitors or other third parties may claim that we are infringing upon or misappropriating their intellectual property rights, and we may be found to be infringing upon such rights. For additional information, see Note 13 - Commitments and Contingencies in the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Any claims or litigation could cause us to incur significant expenses and, if successfully asserted against us, could require that we pay substantial damages or royalty payments, prevent us from offering our platform or services or using certain technologies, force us to implement expensive work-arounds, or impose other unfavorable terms. We expect that the occurrence of infringement claims is likely to grow as the market for fitness products and services grows and as we introduce new and updated products and offerings. Further, we cannot compel patent or trademark rights holders to license their rights to us, and our business may be adversely impacted if our access to technology is limited. Accordingly, our exposure to demands for royalty licenses or damages resulting from infringement claims could increase and this could further exhaust our financial and management resources. Further, during the course of any litigation, we may make announcements regarding the results of hearings and motions, and other interim developments. If securities analysts and investors regard these announcements as negative, the market price of our Class A common stock may decline. Even if intellectual property claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor, these claims, and the time and resources necessary to avoid or to resolve them, could divert the resources of our management and require significant expenditures. See "Risks Related to Laws, Regulation, and Legal Proceedings." Any of the foregoing could prevent us from competing effectively and could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results. We cannot compel music rights holders to license their rights to us, and our business may be adversely affected if our access to music is limited. The concentration of control of content by major music licensors means that the actions of one or a few licensors may adversely affect our ability to provide our service. We enter into license agreements to obtain rights to use music in our service, including with major record companies, independent record labels, major music publishers, and independent music publishers and administrators who collectively hold the rights to a significant number of sound recordings and musical compositions. Comprehensive and accurate ownership information for the musical compositions embodied in sound recordings is sometimes unavailable because songwriters' catalogs are frequently bought and sold between rights holders, meaning ownership and share information can change at any time without notification and it may take a while for the appropriate parties to be notified. In some cases, we obtain ownership information directly from music publishers, PROs, collecting societies, or record labels and in other cases we rely on the assistance of third parties to determine ownership information. If the information provided to us or obtained by such third parties does not comprehensively or accurately identify the ownership of musical compositions, if we are unable to determine which musical compositions correspond to specific sound recordings, or if the same party does not own administer, control or own all rights on a worldwide basis, it may become difficult or impossible to identify the appropriate rights holders to whom to pay royalties. This may make it difficult to comply with the obligations of agreements with those rights holders or to secure the appropriate licenses with all necessary parties. Our license agreements are complex and impose numerous obligations on us, including obligations to, among other things: - calculate and make payments based on complex royalty structures, which requires tracking usage of content in our service that may at times have inaccurate or incomplete metadata necessary for such calculation;- provide periodic reports on the exploitation of the content in specified formats; and - comply with certain marketing and advertising restrictions. If certain of our license agreements contain minimum guarantees or advance payments, which could be tied to our number of Subscribers or stream counts for music used in our service, our ability to achieve and sustain profitability and operating leverage could depend in part on our ability to increase our revenue through increased sales of subscriptions on terms that maintain an adequate gross margin. Our license agreements typically have terms of between one and three years, but our Subscribers may cancel their subscriptions at any time. We rely on estimates to forecast whether minimum guarantees and/or advances against royalties could be recouped against our actual content costs incurred over the term of the license agreement. To the extent that our estimates underperform relative to our expectations, and our content costs do not exceed such minimum guarantees and/or advance payments, our margins may be adversely affected. Some of our license agreements also include so-called "most-favored nations" provisions, which require that certain terms (including material financial terms) are no less favorable than those provided to any similarly situated licensor. If agreements are amended or new agreements are entered into on more favorable terms, these most-favored nations provisions could cause our payment or other obligations to escalate substantially. Additionally, some of our license agreements could require consent to undertake new business initiatives utilizing the licensed content (e.g., alternative distribution models), and without such consent, our ability to undertake new business initiatives may be limited and our competitive position could be impacted. If we use content in ways that are found to exceed the scope of such agreements, we could be subject to monetary penalties or claims of infringement, and our rights under such agreements could be terminated.

A significant and growing portion of our Members access our platform through the Peloton App, and there is no guarantee that popular mobile devices or television streaming devices will continue to support the Peloton App or that device users will use the Peloton App rather than competing products. We are dependent on the interoperability of the Peloton App with popular mobile and television streaming operating systems that we do not control, such as Android and iOS, and any changes in such systems that degrade the functionality of our App offering or give preferential treatment to competitors could adversely affect our platform's usage on mobile devices and televisions. Additionally, in order to deliver high-quality content, it is important that the Peloton App offering is designed effectively and works well with a range of mobile and streaming technologies, systems, networks, and standards that we do not control. App store license agreements are not negotiable, and we must be responsive to changing requirements under those agreements. We may not be successful in developing relationships with key participants in the mobile and streaming 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 Members to access and use our platform on their mobile devices or televisions, or Members find the Peloton App does not effectively meet their needs, our competitors develop products and services that are perceived to operate more effectively on mobile devices or televisions, or if our Members choose not to access or use our platform on their mobile devices or televisions or use products that do not offer access to our platform, our Member growth and Member engagement could be adversely impacted.

We operate a global business and may have direct or indirect interactions with public officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities. We are subject to the FCPA, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, Honest Services Wire Fraud, 18 U.S.C. § 1346, 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 prohibit companies and their employees and third-party representatives from corruptly promising, authorizing, offering, or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or anything of value to foreign public officials, political parties, and private-sector recipients for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business, directing business to any person, or securing any advantage. In addition, U.S. public companies are required to maintain books and 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. Governmental enforcement authorities could seek to impose substantial civil and/or criminal fines and penalties for violations of these laws by any director, officer, employee, or third-party representative, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, operating results 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, operating results 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, substantial criminal or civil sanctions and suspension or debarment from U.S. government contracts, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, operating results, 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.

The application of indirect taxes, such as sales and use tax, subscription sales tax, value-added tax, provincial taxes, goods and services tax, business tax, and gross receipt tax, to businesses like ours and to our Subscribers is a complex and evolving issue. Significant judgment is required to evaluate applicable tax obligations. In many cases, the ultimate tax determination is uncertain because it is not clear how existing statutes apply to our business. One or more states, the federal government, or other countries may seek to impose additional reporting, record-keeping, or indirect tax collection obligations on businesses like ours that offer subscription services and other fitness offerings, and consumers have contested, and may in the future contest, the appropriateness of our tax collection practices through litigation or other means. New taxes could also require us to incur substantial costs to capture data and collect and remit taxes. If such obligations were imposed, the additional costs associated with tax collection, remittance, and audit requirements could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results.

We are subject to requirements under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, requiring us to conduct due diligence on and disclose whether or not certain conflict minerals originating from certain countries as well as geographic regions are necessary for the manufacture or functionality of our products. The implementation of these requirements could adversely affect the sourcing, availability, and pricing of the materials used in the manufacture of components used in our products. In addition, we incur additional costs to comply with the potential disclosure requirements, including costs related to conducting diligence procedures to determine the sources of minerals that may be used or necessary to the production of our products and, if applicable, potential changes to products, processes, or sources of supply as a consequence of such due diligence activities. It is also possible that we may face reputational harm if we determine that any of our products contain minerals not determined to be free of conflict minerals or if we are unable to alter our products, processes, or sources of supply to avoid such materials.

Our products and services may be considered discretionary items for consumers. Factors affecting the level of consumer spending for such discretionary items include general economic conditions, including inflation, rising interest rates, recessionary conditions, and other factors such as consumer confidence in future economic conditions, fears of recession, the availability and cost of consumer credit and spending power, levels of unemployment, and tax rates. In recent years, the United States and other significant economic markets have experienced cyclical downturns and worldwide economic conditions remain uncertain. As global economic conditions continue to be volatile or economic uncertainty remains, trends in consumer discretionary spending also remain unpredictable and subject to reductions and fluctuations. Unfavorable economic conditions may lead consumers to delay or reduce purchases of our products and services and consumer demand for our products and services may not grow as we expect. For example, in more recent quarters, we have experienced reduced consumer demand, partially contributing to a decrease in Connected Fitness Products revenue relative to prior year periods. Our sensitivity to economic cycles and any related fluctuation in consumer demand for our products and services could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results.

A resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition due to the occurrence of some or all of the following events or circumstances, among others: - our and our third-party suppliers', contract manufacturers', logistics providers', and other business partners' inability to manage our or their business effectively or operate worksites due to employees, including key employees, becoming ill and working from home inefficiently as a result of a remote or hybrid working arrangement;- temporary inventory shortages caused by difficulties in predicting demand for our products and services and longer lead-times and component shortages in the manufacturing of our Connected Fitness Products, due to import/export conditions such as port congestion, and local government orders; and - incurrence of significant increases to employee healthcare and benefits costs. In addition, while we experienced a significant increase in our Subscriber base at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate of the increase has since slowed down and, over the longer term, it remains uncertain how the post-COVID-19 pandemic environment will impact consumer demand for our products and services and consumer preferences generally. It also remains uncertain how any resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic would impact demand for our products and services. See "- Our operating results have been, and could in the future be, adversely affected if we are unable to accurately forecast consumer demand for our products and services and adequately manage our inventory."