RISK FACTORS, (continued)
−Removed: Due to the uncertainty relating to a pandemic or similar outbreak, the Company, its customers or its suppliers may be required, or believe that it is advantageous, to take precautionary measures intended to minimize the risk of a virus or disease spreading to employees, customers, and the communities in which they operate, and these measures could negatively impact the Company’s business.
−Removed: Further, if the scope and severity of an outbreak, such as COVID-19, worsens and the Company’s contingency plans prove ineffective, its global operations could potentially experience disruptions, such as temporary closure of facilities or delays or suspensions in product offerings and services, which may materially and adversely affect the Company’s business, financial condition and results of operations.
Risks in Connection with Acquisitions .
2 unchanged sentences
In addition, acquisitions involve inherent risks that the businesses acquired will not perform in accordance with expectations, or that synergies expected from the integration of the acquisitions will not be achieved as rapidly as expected, if at all.
+Added: The Company's pre-acquisition diligence review may not discover or accurately quantify certain undisclosed liabilities, and the Company may not be indemnified for such liabilities which could have an adverse effect on the acquired business.
Failure to effectively integrate acquired businesses could prevent the realization of expected rates of return on the acquisition investment, including the achievement of cost-reduction objectives, and could have a negative effect on the Company's results of operations and financial condition.
8 unchanged sentences
Intellectual property rights and the Company's ability to enforce them may be unavailable or limited in some countries which could make it easier for competitors to capture market share and could result in lost revenues.
+Added: Intellectual property infringement assertions by third parties could result in significant costs and adversely affect the Company's business, financial condition, operating results and reputation.
+Added: The Company cannot guarantee that the operation of its business does not infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate the intellectual property rights of third parties.
+Added: The Company cannot predict whether other assertions of third-party intellectual property rights or claims arising from such assertions would substantially adversely affect the Company's business, financial condition and operating results.
+Added: The defense of these claims and any future infringement claims, whether they are with or without merit or are determined in the Company's favor, may result in costly litigation and diversion of technical and management personnel.
+Added: Further, an adverse outcome of a dispute may require the Company to pay damages, cease making, licensing, or using products or offering services that are alleged to incorporate the intellectual property of others, expend additional development resources to redesign the Company's offerings, or enter into potentially unfavorable royalty or license agreements in order to obtain the right to use necessary intellectual property, which may be unavailable on terms acceptable to the Company, or at all.
+Added: Even if these matters do not result in litigation or are resolved in the Company's favor or without significant cash settlements, the time and resources necessary to resolve them could adversely affect the Company's business, reputation, financial condition and operating results.
Environmental Remediation and Compliance.
5 unchanged sentences
New laws and regulations, including those which may relate to emissions of greenhouse gases, stricter enforcement of existing laws and regulations, the discovery of previously unknown contamination or the imposition of new clean-up requirements could require the Company to incur costs or become the basis for new or increased liabilities that could have a material adverse effect on the Company's business, financial condition or results of operations.
+Added: RISK FACTORS, (continued)
Technological Factors Beyond the Company's Control.
2 unchanged sentences
Changes in Laws and Regulations Governing Data Privacy and Data Protection .
−Removed: The Company is subject to many data privacy, data protection, and data breach notification laws, including the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”), which became effective in May of 2018, and the California Consumer Privacy Act (the "CCPA"), which became effective in January 2020.
−Removed: The GDPR and the CCPA contain numerous requirements, including more robust obligations and increased documentation requirements for data protection compliance programs by companies.
−Removed: Complying with the GDPR and the CCPA may cause the Company to incur substantial operational costs or require the Company to change its business practices.
−Removed: The Company’s measures to assess the requirements of, and to comply with, the GDPR and the CCPA, as
−Removed: RISK FACTORS, (continued)
−Removed: well as new and existing data-related laws and regulations of other jurisdictions, could be challenged, including by authorities that regulate data-related compliance.
−Removed: The Company’s ongoing compliance measures could result in the incurrence of significant expense in facilitating and responding to regulatory investigations, and if the measures initiated by the Company are deemed to be inadequate, the Company could be subject to enforcement actions that may require operational changes, fines, penalties or damages, which could have an adverse impact on the Company’s business or results of operations.
+Added: The Company is subject to many data privacy, data protection, and data breach notification laws, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”), which became effective in May of 2018, and the California Consumer Privacy Act (the "CCPA"), which became effective in January 2020.
+Added: The GDPR and the CCPA contain comprehensive data protection compliance requirements.
+Added: Complying with the GDPR and the CCPA may continue to cause the Company to incur substantial operational costs or require the Company to change certain of its business practices in certain jurisdictions.
+Added: The Company’s measures to assess the requirements of, and to comply with, the GDPR and the CCPA, as well as new and existing data-related laws and regulations of other jurisdictions, could be challenged, including by authorities that regulate data-related compliance.
+Added: The Company’s ongoing compliance measures could result in the incurrence of significant expense in facilitating and responding to regulatory investigations, and if the measures initiated by the Company are deemed to be inadequate, the Company could be subject to litigation or enforcement actions that may require operational changes, fines, penalties or damages, which could have an adverse impact on the Company’s business or results of operations.
Changes in Tax Rules.
−Removed: The enactment of the U.S.
−Removed: Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Act”) in December 2017 significantly affected U.S.
−Removed: tax law by changing how the U.S.
−Removed: imposes tax on multinational corporations.
−Removed: Department of Treasury has broad authority under the Act to issue regulations and interpretive guidance.
−Removed: The Company has applied available guidance to estimate its tax obligations, but new guidance issued by the U.S.
−Removed: Treasury Department may cause the Company to make adjustments to its tax estimates in future periods.
+Added: Matthews is subject to domestic and international tax laws and cannot predict the scope or effect of future tax law changes.
+Added: Domestically, the U.S.
+Added: Department of Treasury has broad authority to issue regulations and interpretive guidance.
+Added: The Company has applied available guidance to estimate its tax obligations, but new guidance may cause the Company to make adjustments to its tax estimates in future periods.
Compliance with Foreign Laws and Regulations.
1 unchanged sentence
The Company cannot predict the nature, scope or effect of future regulatory requirements to which the Company's operations might be subject or the manner in which existing laws might be administered or interpreted, which could have a material and negative impact on the Company's business and results of operation.
−Removed: For example, recent years have seen an increase in the development and enforcement of laws regarding trade compliance and anti-corruption, such as the U.S.
+Added: For example, recent years have seen an increase in the development and enforcement of laws and regulations regarding trade compliance, economic sanctions, anti-money laundering, and anti-corruption, such as the U.S.
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar laws in other countries.
1 unchanged sentence
Such conduct, or even the allegation thereof, could result in costly investigations and the imposition of severe criminal or civil sanctions, could disrupt the Company's business, and could materially and adversely affect the Company's reputation, business and results of operations or financial condition.
−Removed: Further, the Company is subject to laws and regulations worldwide affecting its operations outside the United States in areas including, but not limited to, intellectual property ownership and infringement, tax, customs, import and export requirements, anti-corruption and anti-bribery, foreign exchange controls and cash repatriation restrictions, foreign investment, data privacy requirements, anti-competition, pensions and social insurance, employment, and environment, health, and safety.
+Added: Further, the Company is subject to laws and regulations worldwide affecting its operations outside the United States in areas including, but not limited to, intellectual property ownership and infringement, tax, customs, import and export requirements, economic sanctions, anti-money laundering, anti-corruption and anti-bribery, foreign exchange controls and cash repatriation restrictions, foreign investment, data privacy requirements, anti-competition, pensions and social insurance, employment, and environment, health, and safety.
Compliance with these laws and regulations may be onerous and expensive and requirements may differ among jurisdictions.
6 unchanged sentences
These changes include changes in the rate of consumption or use of the Company's products due to economic downturns, volatility in currency exchange rates, and changes in raw material prices resulting from supply and/or demand conditions.
+Added: RISK FACTORS, (continued)
Uncertainty about current global economic conditions poses a risk, as consumers and businesses may continue to postpone or cancel spending.
1 unchanged sentence
These and other economic factors could have an effect on demand for the Company's products and services and negatively impact the Company's financial condition and results of operations.
+Added: Labor shortages, turnover and labor cost increases.
+Added: Labor is a significant component of the Company's operations.
+Added: Several factors may adversely affect the labor force available to Matthews or increase labor costs (i.e., labor rates and overtime levels), including high employment levels, unemployment subsidies, increased wages offered by other employers, vaccine mandates and other government regulations and the Company’s responses thereto.
+Added: An overall labor shortage, lack of skilled labor, increased turnover, or labor inflation, caused by pandemics or as a result of general macroeconomic factors, could have a material adverse impact on the Company’s business and operating results.
Cybersecurity and Data Breaches.
2 unchanged sentences
Security breaches of the Company's network or data including physical or electronic break-ins, vendor service outages, computer viruses, attacks by hackers or similar breaches can create system disruptions, shutdowns, or unauthorized disclosure of confidential information.
−Removed: Although the Company is not aware of any significant incidents to date, if it is unable to prevent such security or privacy breaches, its operations could be disrupted or the Company may suffer legal claims, loss of reputation, financial loss, property damage, or regulatory penalties because of lost or misappropriated information.
−Removed: RISK FACTORS, (continued)
+Added: Although the Company is not aware of any significant incidents to date, if it is unable to prevent, detect and timely remediate such security or privacy breaches, its operations could be disrupted or the Company may suffer legal claims, loss of reputation, financial loss, property damage, or regulatory penalties because of lost or misappropriated information.
Effectiveness of Internal Controls.
12 unchanged sentences
Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.