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 users, may lead to broader restrictions and impairments on our marketing and personalization activities and may negatively impact our efforts to understand users.
As we continue to expand and new laws are enacted or existing laws change, we may be subject to new laws, regulations or standards or new interpretations of existing laws, regulations or standards, which could require us to incur additional costs and restrict our business operations. Furthermore, these obligations may be interpreted and applied inconsistently from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other requirements or our practices. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with rapidly evolving data protection laws and regulations, policies (including our own stated privacy policies), legal obligations, contractual obligations or industry standards, or any security incident that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of personally identifiable information or other customer data, may result in governmental investigations and/or enforcement actions, litigation (including customer class actions), claims by our customers and other third parties, fines, penalties and other liabilities, damage to our reputation or adverse publicity, and could cause our customers to lose trust in us, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
If our suppliers fail to comply with applicable laws, including a failure to use acceptable labor practices, or if our suppliers suffer disruptions in their businesses, we could suffer adverse business consequences.
Our suppliers source the merchandise we sell from manufacturers both inside and outside of the United States. Although each of our purchase orders is subject to our terms and conditions, which require compliance with all applicable laws including labor and employment, immigration, customs, environmental and product safety, we do not own, supervise or control our suppliers or the manufacturers that produce the merchandise we sell. In the past we have purchased merchandise from our suppliers solely within the United States. In the future, we expect to increase direct purchases from suppliers outside the United States, which may expose us to additional risks. The violation, or perception of any violation, of any labor, immigration, product safety, or other laws by any of our suppliers, their U.S. and non-U.S. manufacturers, or our direct suppliers, such as use of forced or child labor, or the divergence of the labor practices followed by any of our suppliers or these manufacturers from those generally accepted in the United States, could damage our brand image or subject us to boycotts by our customers or activist groups which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Any event causing a sudden disruption of manufacturing or imports, including the imposition of additional import restrictions, could interrupt, or otherwise disrupt the shipment of finished products to us by our suppliers. Political and financial instability outside the United States, strikes, adverse weather conditions or natural disasters that may occur or acts of war or terrorism in the United States or worldwide, may affect the production, shipment or receipt of merchandise. These factors, which are beyond our control, may require us to modify our current business practices or incur increased costs and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Changes in laws, including employment laws and laws related to our merchandise, could make conducting our business more expensive or otherwise cause us to change the way we do business, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We are subject to numerous regulations, including labor and employment, truth-in-advertising, California’s Proposition 65 and other environmental laws and regulations, customer protection and zoning and occupancy laws and ordinances that regulate retailers generally or govern the promotion and sale of merchandise and the operation of warehouse facilities. If these regulations were to change or were violated by our management, employees, or suppliers, the costs of certain goods could increase, or we could experience delays in shipments of our goods, be subject to fines or penalties or suffer reputational harm, which could reduce demand for our merchandise and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition to increased regulatory compliance requirements, changes in laws could make the ordinary conduct of our business more expensive or require us to change the way we do business.
Laws related to employee benefits and treatment of employees, including laws related to limitations on employee hours, immigration laws, child labor laws, supervisory status, leaves of absence, wages, pay transparency, mandated health benefits or overtime pay, could also increase compensation and benefits costs. Moreover, changes in product safety or other customer protection laws, could lead to increased costs to us for some merchandise, or additional labor costs associated with readying merchandise for sale. It is often difficult