PARTI Item1A.RiskFactors significance of these disputes and inquiries is expected to continue to increase as our products, services, and business expand in complexity, scale, scope, and geographic reach, including through acquisitions of businesses and technology. Investigations and legal proceedings are inherently uncertain, expensive and disruptive to our operations, and could result in substantial judgments, fines, penalties or settlements, negative publicity, substantial diversion of managements time and effort, reputational harm, criminal sanctions, or orders that prevent or limit us from offering certain products or services; require us to change our business practices in costly ways, develop non-infringing or otherwise altered products or technologies, or pay substantial royalty or licensing fees; or delay or preclude planned transactions or product launches or improvements. Determining legal reserves or possible losses from such matters involves significant estimates and judgmentsandmaynotreflectthefullrangeofuncertaintiesandunpredictableoutcomes.Wemaybeexposedtolossesin excess of the amount recorded, and such amounts could be material. If any of our estimates and assumptions change or prove to have been incorrect, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations,or cashflows. Third parties may allege that we are infringingtheir patents and other intellectual property rights. Wearefrequentlysubjectto litigation based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. Intellectual property infringement claims against us may result from, among other things, our expansion into new business areas, including through acquisitions of businesses and technology, or new or expanded products and services and their convergence with technologies not previously associated with areas related to our business, products, and services. The ultimate outcome of any allegation or claim is often uncertain and any such claim, with or without merit, may be time- consuming to defend, result in costly litigation, divert managements time and attention from our business, result in reputational harm, and require us to, among other things, redesign or stop providing our products or services, pay substantial amountsto settle claims or lawsuits, satisfy judgments, or pay substantial royalty or licensing fees. Wemaybeunabletoprotectorenforceourintellectualproperty. Theprotectionof our proprietaryrights, including our trademarks,copyrights,domain names, trade dress, patentsand trade secrets, is important to the success of our business. Effective protection of our proprietary rights may not be available in every jurisdiction in which we offer our products and services. Although we have generally taken measures to protect our intellectual property, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in protecting or enforcing our rights in every jurisdiction, that our contractual arrangements will prevent or deter third parties from infringing or misappropriating our intellectual property, or that third parties will not independently develop equivalent or superior intellectual property rights. Wemayberequiredtoexpendsignificanttime and resourcesto prevent infringement and enforce our rights, and we may beunabletodiscoveror determinethe extent of any unauthorized use of our proprietary rights. If we are unable to prevent third parties from infringing or otherwise violating our proprietary rights, the uniqueness and value of our products and services could be adversely affected, the value of our brands could be diminished, and our business could be adversely affected. We expect to continue to license in the future certain of our proprietary rights, such as trademarks or copyrighted material, to others. These licensees may take actions that diminish the value of our proprietary rights or harm our reputation. Any failure to adequately protect or enforce our proprietary rights, or significant costs incurred in doing so, could diminish thevalueofourintangibleassetsandmateriallyharmourbusiness. BusinessandOperationsRisks Wefacesubstantialandincreasinglyintensecompetitionworldwideintheglobalpayments industry. The global payments industry is highly competitive, dynamic, highly innovative, and increasingly subject to regulatory scrutiny and oversight. Many of the areas in which we compete evolve rapidly with innovative and disruptive technologies, shifting user preferences and needs, price sensitivity of merchants and consumers, and frequent introductions of new products and services. Competition also may intensify as new competitors emerge, businesses enter into business combinationsandpartnerships,andestablishedcompaniesinothersegmentsexpandtobecomecompetitivewithvarious aspectsofourbusiness. We compete with a wide range of businesses in every aspect of our business. Some of our current and potential competitors are or may be larger than we are, have larger customer bases, greater brand recognition, longer operating histories, a dominant or more secure position, broader geographic scope, volume, scale, resources, and market share than wedo,orofferproductsandservicesthatwedonotoffer.Othercompetitorsareormaybesmalleroryoungercompanies that may be moreagilein respondingto regulatoryandtechnologicalchangesandcustomerpreferences.Ourcompetitors maydevotegreaterresourcestothedevelopment,promotion,andsaleofproductsandservices,and/orofferlowerprices or more effectively offer their own innovative programs, products, and services. We often partner with other businesses, 20 •2022AnnualReport