A deterioration in relations between either us or the U.S. and any country in which we have significant sales, or the implementation of government regulations in the U.S. or such a country, could result in the adoption or expansion of trade restrictions, including economic sanctions or absolute prohibitions, that could have a negative impact on our business. In addition, cultural differences may affect consumer preferences and limit the international popularity of FaZe in certain areas or require us to modify the products and content we offer or the method by which we deliver our content to our consumers in order to be successful in those areas. If we do not correctly assess consumer preferences in the countries in which we sell our products and offer our entertainment content, the success of our international operations will be negatively impacted.
We are also subject to risks that our operations outside the U.S. could be conducted by our employees, contractors, third-party affiliates, representatives, or agents in ways that violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.K. Anti-Bribery Act or other similar anti-bribery or financial crime laws. While we have policies, procedures, and training for our employees, intended to secure compliance with these laws, our employees, contractors, third-party affiliates, representatives or agents may take actions that violate our policies. Moreover, it may be more difficult to oversee the conduct of any such persons who are not our employees, potentially exposing us to greater risk from their actions.
Fluctuations in exchange rates may negatively affect our results of operations.
While we currently price our products in U.S. dollars, even in international markets, we may become more exposed to the effects of fluctuations in currency exchange rates as we continue to expand our international reach. We generally collect revenue from our international markets in U.S. currency. As of and for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 and the year ended December 31, 2021, we had consumers in over 100 countries and approximately 12.6% and 9.5% of our merchandise revenue was derived from outside the U.S., respectively. Rapid appreciation of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies can harm our reported results and cause the revenues derived from outside the U.S. and Canada to decrease. In addition, even if we do adjust the cost of our products in foreign markets to track appreciation in the U.S. dollar, such appreciation could increase the costs of purchasing our products outside of the U.S., adversely affecting our business, results of operations and financial condition.
As we continue to expand, we may also incur expenses for employee compensation and other operating expenses at non-U.S. locations in the local currency should we establish a local presence in international regions. Fluctuations in the exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and other currencies could result in the dollar equivalent of our expenses being higher which may not be offset by additional revenue earned in the local currency. This could have a negative impact on our reported results of operations. To date, we have not engaged in any hedging strategies and any such strategies, such as forward contracts, options and foreign exchange swaps related to transaction exposures that we may implement in the future to mitigate this risk may not eliminate our exposure to foreign exchange fluctuations. Moreover, the use of hedging instruments may introduce additional risks if we are unable to structure effective hedges with such instruments.
A cybersecurity-related attack, significant data breach, or disruption of the information technology systems or networks on which we rely could negatively impact our business.
In the course of our day-to-day business, we and third parties on our behalf create, store, and/or use commercially sensitive information, including internal communications and confidential information with respect to our sponsors, talent, consumers, and employees. A malicious cybersecurity-related attack, intrusion or disruption by hackers (including through spyware, ransomware, viruses, phishing, denial of service, and similar attacks) or other breach of the systems on which such information and other sensitive data is stored could lead to piracy of our content, fraudulent activity, disclosure, or misappropriation of, or access to, our sponsors’, talents’, consumers’, or employees’ information, or our own data. We have implemented cybersecurity programs and the tools, technologies, processes, and procedures intended to secure our data and systems, and prevent and detect unauthorized access to, or loss of, our data, or the data of our sponsors, talent, consumers, or employees.
However, because these cyberattacks may remain undetected for prolonged periods of time and the techniques used by criminal hackers and other malicious third parties to breach systems change frequently, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or otherwise be successful in preventing or responding to cyberattacks. If we are subject to a cybersecurity breach, or a security-related incident, we may have a disruption in the availability of our products and content offerings, we may have a loss in sales or be forced to pay damages or incur other costs, including from the implementation of additional cyber and physical security measures, or suffer reputational damage that could have a negative impact on our operations and financial results.
71