Confidential Treatment Requested by ESAB Corporation
Pursuant to 17 C.F.R. Section 200.83
In addition, any environmental liability may be joint and several. Moreover, the presence of contamination or the failure to remediate contamination at our properties, or properties for which we are deemed responsible, may expose us to liability for property damage or personal injury, or materially adversely affect our ability to sell our real property interests or to borrow using the real property as collateral. We could be subject to environmental liabilities in the future as a result of historic or current operations that have resulted or will result in contamination.
The occurrence of any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are exposed to certain regulatory and financial risks related to climate change, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
Continuing political and social attention to the issue of climate change has resulted in both existing and pending
international agreements and national, regional or local legislation and regulatory measures to limit greenhouse
gas emissions, such as cap and trade regimes, carbon taxes, restrictive permitting, increased fuel efficiency
standards and incentives or mandates for renewable energy. Such measures could subject us to additional costs
and restrictions and require significant operating and capital expenditures, which could impact our business,
financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Additionally, such measures may impact our customers,
which could impact their ability or desire to continue to operate at similar levels in certain jurisdictions as
historically seen or as currently anticipated, which could negatively impact their demand for our products and services.
Our businesses are subject to extensive regulation; failure to comply with those regulations could adversely affect our reputation and our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition to the environmental, health, safety, anti-corruption, export control, privacy, data protection, data security and other regulations noted above, our businesses are also subject to extensive regulation by U.S. and non-U.S. governmental and self-regulatory entities at the supranational, federal, state, local, and other jurisdictional levels. Certain of our gas control products are classified as medical devices that are subject to regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and under the European Union Medical Device Regulation, as well as by other federal and local governmental agencies, and by certain accrediting bodies. To varying degrees, these regulators require us to comply with laws and regulations governing the development, testing, manufacturing, labeling, marketing, distribution, and post-marketing surveillance of such products. We are also required to comply with ever changing labor and employment laws and regulations in multiple jurisdictions. These changes could negatively impact our business or financial position.
These are not the only regulations that our businesses must comply with. The regulations we are subject to have tended to become more stringent over time and may be inconsistent across jurisdictions. Failure to comply with the regulations referenced above or any other regulations could result in civil and criminal, monetary and non-monetary penalties, and any such failure or alleged failure could also damage our reputation, disrupt our business, limit our ability to manufacture, import, export, and sell products and services, result in loss of customers and cause us to incur significant legal and investigatory fees. Compliance with these and other regulations may also affect our returns on investment, require us to incur significant expenses, or modify our business model or impair our flexibility in modifying product, marketing, pricing, or other strategies for growing our business. Our products and operations are also often subject to the rules of industrial standards bodies such as the International Standards Organization, and failure to comply with these rules could result in withdrawal of certifications needed to sell our products and services and otherwise adversely impact our reputation and our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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