Nu Skin (NUS) Risk Analysis

In recent years, there has been significant litigation in the United States involving patents and other intellectual property rights. In particular, there has been an increase in the filing of suits alleging infringement of intellectual property rights, which pressure defendants into entering into settlement arrangements quickly to dispose of such suits, regardless of their merit. Other companies or individuals may allege that we, or our sales force, consumers, licensees or other parties indemnified by us, infringe on their intellectual property rights. Even if we believe that such claims are without merit, defending such intellectual property litigation can be costly, distract management's attention and resources, and the outcome is inherently uncertain. Claims of intellectual property infringement also might require us to redesign affected products, enter into costly settlement or license agreements, pay costly damage awards, or face a temporary or permanent injunction prohibiting us from marketing or selling certain of our products. Any of these results may adversely affect our financial condition. As a result of claims against us regarding suspected infringement, our technologies may be subject to injunction, we may be required to pay damages, or we may have to seek a license to continue certain practices (which may not be available on reasonable terms, if at all), all of which may significantly increase our operating expenses or may require us to restrict our business activities and limit our ability to deliver our products and services and/or certain features, integrations, and capabilities of our platform. As a result, we may also be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology, which could require significant effort and expense and/or cause us to alter our products or services, which could negatively affect our business. We employ individuals who were previously employed at other beauty or wellness product companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. To the extent that our employees are involved in research areas that are similar to those in which they were involved with their former employers, we may be subject to claims that such employees have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed the alleged trade secrets or other proprietary information of the former employers. Litigation may be necessary to defend against such claims. If we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights or our proprietary information and know-how, our ability to compete could be negatively impacted and the value of our products could be adversely affected. The market for our products depends to a significant extent upon the value associated with our product innovations and our brand equity. We rely upon patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret laws in the United States and other markets, and non-disclosure, confidentiality, and other types of agreements with our employees, sales force, customers, suppliers and other parties, to establish, maintain and enforce our intellectual property rights. Despite these measures, any of our intellectual property rights could be challenged, invalidated, circumvented, or misappropriated, or such intellectual property rights may not be sufficient to permit us to provide competitive advantages, which could result in costly product redesign efforts, discontinuance of certain product offerings or other competitive harm. In addition, the laws of certain foreign markets where we have significant business, including markets such as Mainland China, do not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. The costs required to protect our patents and trademarks may be substantial. In some cases it may not even be practical to seek to register our intellectual property for various reasons, including costs and enforceability. We have filed patent and trademark applications globally to protect our intellectual property rights in our new technologies; however, there can be no assurance that our patent and trademark applications will be approved and issued, that any patents and trademarks issued will adequately protect our intellectual property, or that such patents and trademarks will not be challenged by third parties or found by a judicial authority to be invalid or unenforceable. Additionally, we cannot guarantee that our intellectual property rights will be respected and not infringed by third parties. Moreover, many of our products rely on technologies developed or licensed by third parties, and we may not be able to obtain or continue to obtain licenses and technologies from these third parties on reasonable terms or at all. From time to time, we become aware of potential violations of our intellectual property rights. For example, we are aware of the use of and attempts to obtain trademark registrations for "Nu Skin" or phonetically similar marks and of some products that may infringe on our intellectual property related to the ageLOC LumiSpa device. To enforce and protect our intellectual property rights, we may initiate actions against third parties to protect our intellectual property, such as patent, copyright, and trademark infringement lawsuits or interference proceedings, and seek indemnification by contract or otherwise. Any lawsuits that we initiate could be expensive, take significant time and divert management's attention from other business concerns, and we may ultimately fail to prevail or recover on any indemnification claim. Litigation also puts our patents and trademarks at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our patent and trademark applications at risk of not issuing. Additionally, we may provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially valuable. The occurrence of any of these events may adversely affect our financial condition or diminish our investments in this area. In addition to patented technology, we rely on our unpatented proprietary technology, trade secrets, processes and know-how. We generally seek to protect this information by confidentiality, non-disclosure and assignment of invention agreements with our employees, consultants, scientific advisors and third parties. Our employees may leave to work for competitors. Our sales force members may seek other opportunities. These agreements may be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for any such breach. In addition, our trade secrets may be disclosed to or otherwise become known or be independently developed by competitors. To the extent that our current or former employees, sales force, consultants or contractors use intellectual property owned by others in their work for us, disputes may arise as to the rights in related or resulting know-how and inventions. If, for any of the above reasons, our intellectual property is disclosed or misappropriated, it would harm our ability to protect our rights and adversely affect our financial condition. Data Security and Privacy Risks

A breached or compromised data system or the intentional, inadvertent or negligent release, misuse or disclosure of data could result in theft, loss, or fraudulent or unlawful use of company, employee, sales force, customer or guest data. Although we take measures to protect the security, integrity, accessibility and confidentiality of our data systems, we experience cyberattacks of varying degrees and types on a regular basis. Although we use best efforts to detect and investigate all cyberattacks and data security incidents, it may be difficult to determine its scope of impact. Our infrastructure may be vulnerable to these attacks, and in some cases it could take time to discover attacks and determine their impact. Our security measures may also be breached due to employee error or malfeasance, system errors or otherwise. Additionally, outside parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees, users, or customers to disclose confidential information to gain access to our systems, our data, or our users' or customers' data. Any such breach or unauthorized access could result in the unauthorized disclosure, misuse or loss of sensitive information and lead to significant legal and financial exposure, regulatory inquiries or investigations, loss of confidence by our sales force and customers, disruption of our operations, damage to our reputation, and costs associated with remediating the incident. The cost of investigation and response, including providing required breach notification obligations to individuals, regulators, and other third parties may be significant.  The risk of legal claims in the event of a security breach is increasing. A successful assertion of one or more large claims against us in the event of a data breach may exceed available insurance coverage or lead to increases in premiums or required deductibles. A data breach could also lead to a lack of consumer trust and negatively affect our reputation. These risks are likely to increase as we continue to expand operations and process increasing amounts of personal information, proprietary data and sensitive data. In addition, should a threat-actor successfully breach our systems to a significant extent, they could disable our systems or take our systems offline via ransomware, and such actions could stop or significantly impair our ability to conduct business, including processing orders and tracking and timely paying sales compensation to our sales force. Additionally, threat-actors regularly extort money from victims as a condition to returning the victim's systems to operation and/or to not releasing stolen data to the public. These risks are heightened as we work with third-party providers, including providers of mobile and cloud technologies, and as our sales force uses social media, as our third-party providers and the social media platforms could be vulnerable to the same types of breaches and other risks. These risks also are heightened as a result of our recent restructurings, which affected several functions at our company, including our information technology and information security functions. Acquisition activity, which we have engaged in and which we plan to continue to engage in, may also heighten these risks, as the systems of the companies we acquire are not under our control prior to the acquisitions and it may take time to evaluate these systems and implement appropriate modifications to them. Sustainability Risks

We have been, and may be in the future, subject to challenges and inquiries by government regulators regarding the form of our network marketing system. Legal and regulatory requirements concerning the direct selling industry generally do not include "bright line" rules and are inherently fact-based and subject to interpretation. As a result, regulators and courts have discretion in their application of these laws and regulations, and the enforcement or interpretation of these laws and regulations by government agencies or courts can change. During the past several years, settlements and other judicial orders between the U.S. Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") and other direct selling companies and guidance from the FTC have addressed inappropriate earnings and lifestyle claims, problematic compensation structures and the importance of focusing on consumers. These developments have created ambiguity as to the proper interpretation of the law and related court decisions. The FTC has been active and aggressive in its enforcement activities, taking action in some cases to require other multi-level marketing companies to cease engaging in multi-level marketing or to modify their business models. Any adverse rulings or legal actions could impact our business if direct selling laws or anti-pyramid laws are interpreted more narrowly or in a manner that results in additional burdens or restrictions on direct selling companies. For example: - In 2021, the FTC sent a notice to more than 1,100 companies, including us, that outlined several practices that the FTC determined to be unfair or deceptive in prior administrative cases. These practices relate to earnings claims, other money-making opportunity claims, and endorsements and testimonials. Pursuant to the FTC's "penalty offense authority," companies that received the notice are expected to comply with the standards set in the prior administrative cases and could incur significant civil penalties if they or their representatives fail to do so. - In 2024, the FTC issued guidance concerning multi-level marketing. The guidance indicates an increasingly restrictive view of multi-level marketing, compensation structures, earnings claims and a company's protection from liability for claims made by members of its sales force. - In 2025, the FTC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ("NPR") and an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ("ANPR") regarding potential rules governing earnings claims for multi-level marketers. The NPR proposes to prohibit multi-level marketers from making deceptive earnings claims, and it would require them to have written substantiation to back up any earnings claims and make that substantiation available to consumers upon request. The ANPR indicates that the FTC is considering additional restrictions on earnings claims and recruiting by multi-level marketers. Although we take steps to educate our sales force on proper claims, if members of our sales force make improper claims, or if regulators determine we are making any improper claims, this could lead to an FTC investigation and could harm our business. The FTC's increased scrutiny of earnings claims, as reflected in the NPR and ANPR, could lead to more FTC actions regarding improper claims, as well as new industry standards or new rules that could potentially limit our ability, and the ability of our sales force, to make earnings claims, which could harm our ability to grow our sales force. In addition, any FTC proposed rules, guidance or enforcement actions could lead to new industry standards or new rules, or they could limit the levels in the network for which payments can be made, any of which could impact our business and require us to amend our global sales compensation plan. With a majority of our revenue in the United States coming from sales to retail customers and preferred customers, we believe that we can demonstrate consumer demand for our products, but this may not be sufficient under the FTC's increasingly restrictive view of multi-level marketing and we continue to monitor developments to assess whether we should make any changes to our business or global sales compensation plan. If we are required to make changes due to either rulemaking or an enforcement action against our company, our business could be harmed. From time to time, we also are subject to challenges by private parties in civil actions. We are aware of civil actions against other direct-selling companies in the United States that have resulted in significant settlements, and any civil actions against us could similarly result in significant settlements. Allegations directed at us and our competitors regarding the legality of multi-level marketing in various markets and adverse media reports have also created intense public scrutiny of us and our industry. Consumer protection groups and organizations (such as the Better Business Bureau and Truth in Advertising) also generate media and regulatory scrutiny of companies in our industry through regulatory referrals and other channels of publicity. All of these actions and any future scrutiny of us or our industry could generate negative publicity or further regulatory actions that could result in fines, restrict our ability to conduct our business in our various markets, enter into new markets, motivate our sales force and attract consumers.

Social media platforms have decided, and could in the future decide, to prohibit, block or decrease the prominence of our sales force's content for any reason, which harms our business, particularly as our business is becoming increasingly dependent on social commerce. For example, due to concerns with multi-level marketing, the TikTok and WhatsApp Business platforms' community guidelines prohibit content related to multi-level marketing. In addition, Pinterest and Facebook prohibit ads that promote multi-level marketing opportunities, and Pinterest has also imposed restrictions on weight loss products, claims and photos. Moreover, some social marketplace platforms reduce visibility of product offers or posts based on pricing, degree of brand awareness or other factors that could apply to our products. Additional social media platforms' adoption of similar or stricter policies could significantly hamper our sales force's ability to promote our products and attract consumers, which could cause our revenue to decline. Our reputation could also be harmed if our sales force violates any social media platform's community guidelines. If our business practices or policies or the actions of our sales force are deemed to be in violation of applicable local regulations regarding foreigners, then we could be sanctioned and/or required to change our business model, which could significantly harm our business. Our sales force is required to comply with our residency and work authorization policies and other local legal requirements prior to working in a market. Some markets, including Mainland China and Vietnam, also prohibit or restrict participation of foreigners in direct selling activities. We have implemented policies that are designed to comply with these regulations and inform our sales force regarding the types of activities that are not permitted. However, we cannot assure that actions of our sales force will not violate local laws or regulations or our policies. If our business practices or policies or the actions of our sales force are deemed to be in violation of applicable regulations as they may be interpreted or enforced, then we could be sanctioned and/or required to change our business model, which could result in adverse publicity and significantly harm our business. Our sales compensation plans or other incentives could be viewed negatively by some of our sales force, could be restricted by government regulators, and could fail to achieve desired long-term results and have a negative impact on revenue. Our sales compensation includes some components that differ from market to market. We modify components of our sales compensation from time to time to keep our sales compensation plans and business models competitive and attractive to our existing sales force and people interested in joining our sales force, to address changing market dynamics, to provide incentives to our sales force that we believe will help grow our business, to conform to local regulations and to address other business needs. Because of the size of our sales force and the complexity of our sales compensation plans, it is difficult to predict how such changes will be viewed by our sales force and whether such changes will achieve their desired results. It also is difficult to predict how such changes may impact our ability to attract a larger potential target market of opportunity seekers. Certain changes we have made to our global sales compensation plan in the past, which were successful in several markets, did not achieve anticipated results in certain other markets, were not viewed positively by some segments of our sales force, and negatively impacted our business. Similarly, we face the risk that we could fail to make changes to our compensation plans that would be necessary to keep our compensation competitive with the market, compliant with changing regulations, and allow us to attract new opportunity seekers or segments of opportunity seekers, which could have a negative impact on our sales force. Limits on the amount of sales compensation we pay could inhibit our ability to attract and retain our sales force, negatively impact our revenue and cause regulatory risks. Several markets, including Mainland China, South Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam, impose limits on the amount of sales compensation we can pay to our sales force. For example, under regulations in Mainland China, direct selling companies may pay independent direct sellers in Mainland China up to a maximum 30% of the revenue they generate through their own sales of products to consumers. Additionally, in South Korea, local regulations limit sales compensation to 35% of the total price of goods or services supplied in South Korea. These regulations may limit the incentive for people to join our sales force and may reduce our ability to differentiate ourselves from our competitors in attracting and retaining our sales force. In addition, we have been required to modify our sales compensation plan in certain markets, including South Korea and Vietnam, from time to time to remain in compliance with applicable sales compensation limits. Because sales compensation, as a percentage of revenue, can fluctuate as sales force productivity fluctuates, we may be required to make further changes to stay within applicable sales compensation limits or may be at risk of exceeding them. In addition, which revenues and expenses are within the scope of these regulations is not always clear, and interpretation and enforcement of these laws are subject to change, which could require us to make further changes or result in non-compliance with these regulations. Any failure to keep sales compensation within legal limits in Mainland China, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam or any other market that imposes a sales compensation limit could result in fines or other sanctions, including suspensions. We may be held responsible for certain taxes, assessments and other requirements relating to the activities of our sales force, which could harm our financial condition and operating results. We are subject to the risk in some jurisdictions of being responsible for social security taxes, withholding or other taxes, minimum wage laws, and related assessments and penalties with respect to our sales force. This would occur if a jurisdiction classifies our sales force as our employees rather than as independent contractors, or if a jurisdiction expands the categories of personnel to whom these tax obligations apply. - The laws and interpretations regarding "independent contractor" status in certain jurisdictions, including the United States and the European Union, continue to evolve, and in some cases, authorities have sought to apply these laws unfavorably against gig economy, platform and direct selling companies. For example, in March 2024, a regulation of the U.S. Department of Labor went into effect that alters the employee vs. independent contractor analysis under the Fair Labor Standards Act in a way that could potentially cause more workers to be classified as employees. In addition, the European Union's Platform Work Directive, which was adopted in 2024, directs EU member states to implement national laws by December 2026 regulating the classification of platform workers and setting a rebuttable presumption of employment in certain scenarios. There may be differences in how the various EU member states implement this directive. - Some jurisdictions have, without challenging the "independent contractor" status, taken the position that direct sellers must nonetheless pay certain taxes with respect to payments to their sales force. In the event that local laws and regulations, or the interpretation of local laws and regulations, require us to treat members of our sales force as employees rather than independent contractors (or to comply with similar requirements regardless of whether our sales force is classified as employees), this could harm our financial condition and operating results. This risk increases as our sales force increases its use of social sharing, as several jurisdictions' regulations protect in-person or in-home sales demonstrations from creating an employment relationship but are less protective of online demonstrations. If our Brand Affiliates were deemed to be employees rather than independent contractors, we would also face the risk of increased liability for their actions. Our Sales Leaders could also face similar risks with respect to the Brand Affiliates in their sales organizations who may claim they are employees of the Sales Leader rather than independent contractors or independent business owners, which could impact their sales operations or lead them to cease their participation in our business. Risks Associated with Market Conditions and Competition Inability of products, platforms, business opportunities and other initiatives to gain or maintain sales force and market acceptance could harm our business, and trends among older and younger generations of customers contribute to this risk. Over the past several years, the environment for direct selling has become increasingly difficult due to customer trends, increased competition from other affiliate marketing and gig economy businesses, and a stricter regulatory environment across many of our markets. Our ability to improve our financial performance largely depends on our ability to anticipate and/or react in a timely and effective manner to changes in consumer spending patterns and preferences regarding products, platforms, and business opportunities in the affiliate gig and sharing economy. Our operating results have been and could be adversely affected if our business opportunities, platforms, products and other initiatives do not generate sufficient enthusiasm and economic benefit to retain our existing consumers and sales force or to attract new consumers and sales force members. Factors affecting the attractiveness of our business opportunities, platforms, products and other initiatives include, among other things, shifting consumer demands, perceived product quality and value, similarities to other products, product exclusivity or effectiveness, growth of the gig economy, disruption of retail commerce and e-commerce by social commerce, demographic trends, the strength of our brand and public image, growth of connected commerce, sustainability factors, diversity and inclusion initiatives, economic competitiveness of our business opportunity in the marketplace, perceived ability of potential affiliates to succeed in our business opportunity, accepted methods of selling products to customers in the affiliate and member-based platform environment, the quality and accuracy of the data we use in running our business, our technology infrastructure and capabilities, restrictions in social or digital media for sharing products and attracting consumers, adverse media attention and regulatory restrictions on claims. If we are unable to anticipate or adapt to changes in consumer preferences and trends, our business, financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected. Likewise, if we are unable to anticipate or adapt to changes in the affiliate marketing, gig and sharing economies, our ability to capture growth trends in the social commerce marketplace could be materially adversely affected. To adapt our business to current macroeconomic trends, we are taking the following actions, all of which entail risks: - We have begun to roll out an enhanced sales compensation structure that incorporates additional features that may appeal to prospective affiliates in the rapidly expanding gig and sharing economies. However, the need to develop affiliate sales teams to take full advantage of our sales compensation plans or other incentives may be viewed negatively by such prospective affiliates who are familiar with other gig and sharing opportunities. In addition, even if the changes to our sales compensation structure are successful in attracting such prospective affiliates, the changes might at the same time be viewed negatively by current and long-time members of our sales force who have already developed affiliate sales teams. We plan to continually evaluate potential changes to our sales compensation structure to address the evolving commercial environment, and any such changes could have a negative impact on our revenue. - We are exploring new channels for generating revenue and attracting affiliates and consumers through third-party product marketplace partnerships, influencer partnerships and paid search initiatives. However, there is no assurance that these initiatives will be successful, and an inability to own and grow our brand through multiple channels could harm our business. In addition, these omni-channel activities may create perceptions of channel conflict with and amongst our affiliate sales force and, thus, have an adverse effect on revenue. - We are currently working through a significant digital transformation in our business. This transformation involves the development of new and enhanced digital tools for our Sales Leaders and consumers, including new digital apps and an improved website design and e-commerce functionality, as well as new products, including connected devices. Our digital transformation has required significant expenditures, and it will continue to require significant expenditures over the next several years. We face the risk that we will ultimately be unable to develop these items, that their development will be more costly or take longer than anticipated, or that the applications and platforms we have and will develop will not meet the expectations of our sales force and/or consumers. Any of these eventualities could have a material negative impact on our business, sales force, consumer development and revenue. - We are currently pursuing an initiative to optimize the size of our product portfolio, which includes the discontinuation of some products. If we are unable to transition existing customers to a similar or alternative product, or we are unable to anticipate changes in consumer and sales force preferences and trends, or the discontinuation of products causes increased customer attrition, our business, financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected. In addition, in our more mature markets, one of the challenges we face is keeping Sales Leaders with established businesses and high-income levels motivated and actively engaged in business building activities and in developing new Sales Leaders. We also face challenges retaining our sales force as the population of our markets transitions to a younger, millennial/Gen Z demographic, with its associated new and different dynamics of connection through social media platforms, gratification and loyalty behaviors, particularly as this segment becomes a greater share of our revenue. It is possible that, over time, increasing negative perceptions about business opportunities that involve multi-level compensation programs, particularly as affiliate marketing programs gain greater prominence in the gig economy, could develop and increase among these younger demographics, which would be detrimental to our business if we are unable to adapt and offer similar opportunities and rewards while still differentiating our business. In addition, as affiliate marketing programs gain greater market share, our competition for participants from our target market becomes more intense.  Moreover, when sales through social sharing do not generate repeat purchases or subscriptions at the same rate as other sales, this creates revenue volatility and/or declines. Many in the younger demographic are particularly savvy with social sharing across multiple business opportunity platforms. Some of our initiatives have not generated lasting excitement and engagement among our sales force in the long term, and at times, our initiatives have not sufficiently generated sales force activity and productivity or motivated Sales Leaders to remain engaged in business building and developing new Sales Leaders. These outcomes could recur in the future. Some initiatives have had, and could continue to have, unanticipated negative impacts on our sales force, particularly changes to our sales compensation plans, incentive rewards, and recognition practices. The introduction of a new product or key initiative can also negatively impact other product lines to the extent our Sales Leaders focus their efforts on the new product or initiative. In addition, our ability to develop and introduce new products could be impacted by, among other things, government regulations, changing policies in social media and other communications platforms, the inability to attract and retain qualified staff, the termination of third-party research and collaborative arrangements, intellectual property of competitors that may limit our ability to offer innovative products or that challenge our own intellectual property, problems related to manufacturing or quality control, and difficulties in anticipating changes in consumer tastes and buying preferences. Our operating results could be adversely impacted if our products fail to gain or maintain sales force and market acceptance or if our successful new products undercut the sales of our other products. In addition, if any of our products fails to deliver on consumer or sales force expectations, we could see an increase in product returns.

Any significant decline in our operating results could adversely affect our financial position and liquidity. Under the terms of our credit facility, we are required to maintain certain interest coverage and leverage ratios. In addition, our outstanding borrowings under our credit facility and related term loan impose debt service and amortization requirements. A significant deterioration in our results of operations, whether as a result of prevailing economic, financial and industry conditions, or other causes, could impact our ability to comply with our debt covenants and debt service and amortization obligations, which could result in an event of default under the terms of our credit facility. An event of default under our credit facility could result in an inability to access funding under the agreement and cause all outstanding amounts to become immediately due and payable, which would have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and liquidity. In addition, even if we do not default, our debt covenants could impose limitations on our ability to pursue transactions or other opportunities that could be beneficial to our business. Intellectual Property Risks

Difficult economic conditions, such as high unemployment levels, inflation, deflation, or recession, have in the past, and could continue to, adversely affect our business by causing a decline in demand for our products, particularly if the economic conditions are prolonged or worsen. In addition, economic conditions may adversely impact access to capital for us and our suppliers, may decrease the ability of our sales force and consumers to obtain or maintain credit cards, may cause governments to increase their regulatory enforcement activity to alleviate budget shortfalls, and may otherwise adversely impact our operations and overall financial condition. For example, we believe inflation had a negative impact on our 2022 and 2023 sales by curbing the discretionary spending of our consumers. Inflation also has increased the cost of our inventory and shipping expenses. Higher interest rates have increased our interest expense, as our credit facility entails variable-rate interest; moreover, our interest rate swap arrangements are currently scheduled to expire in July 2025, at which time our interest expense could further increase. In addition, the economy in Mainland China continued to be challenging during 2024, including with deflationary pressures, capital markets, and tangible asset markets. All of these conditions could continue in 2025. Our markets are intensely competitive, and market conditions and the strengths of competitors may harm our business. The markets for our products are intensely competitive. The success of our products is dependent on our ability to anticipate and respond to market trends and changes in consumer preferences and to maintain a product offering and pipeline that is relevant and priced accessibly to consumers. Our products compete directly with branded, premium retail products and with the products of other direct selling companies, and many of our competitors have much greater name recognition and financial resources than we have, which may give them a competitive advantage. Because of regulatory restrictions concerning claims about the efficacy of beauty and wellness products, we may have difficulty differentiating our products from our competitors' products, and competing products entering the beauty and wellness market could harm our revenue. In addition, our business may be negatively impacted if we fail to adequately adapt to trends in consumer behavior and technologies to meet consumers' needs and demands and reach a wider audience or if we fail to provide a competitive product price to value proposition to consumers. In addition, the emergence and increased adoption of artificial intelligence ("AI") could cause us to fall behind competitively. In the rapidly evolving landscape of e-commerce and digital enterprises, AI technologies are playing a pivotal role in enhancing customer experiences through personalized recommendations, streamlined purchasing processes and targeted marketing strategies. Automation through AI also could streamline supply chain management, inventory tracking and order fulfillment, leading to increased efficiencies and cost effectiveness. As AI technologies become integral to improving operational efficiency, customer engagement and decision-making processes, our competitiveness and reputation could be harmed if we are unable to adopt and utilize these technologies as quickly or efficiently as our competition. We also compete with other direct selling companies, affiliate marketing companies and gig economy companies to attract and retain our sales force and consumers. Some of these competitors have longer operating histories and greater visibility, name recognition and financial resources than we do. Some of our competitors have also adopted and could continue to adopt some of our successful business strategies, including our global sales compensation plan. Moreover, certain companies in the affiliate marketing and gig economy are growing rapidly and enable seamless product sharing via social media platforms. In some of our markets, these social media platforms are integrated into product marketplaces to enable even faster affiliation of product offerings to potential customers. These companies have disrupted and continue to disrupt the traditional direct selling space. Consequently, to successfully compete in this industry, and attract and retain our sales force and consumers, we must ensure that our business opportunities and sales compensation plans are financially rewarding and innovative. Successfully marketing our sales compensation plan in a way that differentiates it from our competitors could become more difficult as the FTC increases its scrutiny of earnings claims. Likewise, continued tightening of social media platform policies could limit our sales force's ability to differentiate our products and business opportunities. Although we believe we have significant competitive advantages, we cannot assure that we will be able to continue to successfully compete in this industry. Adverse publicity concerning our business, marketing plan, products or people could harm our business and reputation. Growth in our sales force and consumers and our results of operations can be particularly impacted by adverse publicity. Given the nature of our operations, lack of clarity on applicable legal requirements and standards, and our continuous need to recruit and retain consumers and members of our sales force, we are particularly vulnerable to adverse publicity. Specifically, we are susceptible to adverse publicity concerning: - suspicions about the legality and ethics of network marketing; - media or regulatory scrutiny regarding our business and our business models, including in Mainland China; - the safety or effectiveness of our or our competitors' products or the ingredients in such products; - inquiries, investigations, fines, legal actions, or mandatory or voluntary product recalls involving us, our competitors, our business models or our respective products; - the actions of our current or former sales force and employees, including any allegations that our sales force or employees have overstated or made false product claims or earnings representations, or engaged in unethical or illegal activity; - misperceptions about the types and magnitude of economic benefits offered at different levels of sales engagement in our business; and - public, governmental or media perceptions of the direct selling, beauty product, or wellness product industries generally. These issues have previously resulted in negative publicity and have harmed our business. Critics of our industry, consumer protection groups, short sellers and other individuals have in the past and may in the future utilize the internet, social media, the media and other means to publish criticisms of the industry, our company and our competitors, or make allegations regarding our business and operations, or the business and operations of our competitors. In some cases, such adverse publicity or allegations can lead to government and regulatory scrutiny. We continue to see adverse publicity regarding our company and the direct selling and wellness industries. We or others in our industry may receive similar negative publicity or allegations in the future, and it may harm our business and reputation. Furthermore, the use of social media by our sales force and by critics can increase the reach of negative publicity. For example, if a member of our sales force makes an improper claim about our products or business opportunity on social media, or if a critic of our company posts negative information about our company on social media, it has the potential to be disseminated widely and noticed by the media or regulators. Product diversion may have a negative impact on our business. We see our products being sold through online marketplace sites and other distribution channels in certain markets. Although we continually take steps to control product diversion, this activity continues to be a challenge, and we believe that changes to our global sales compensation plan, divergence of product pricing across markets, or increased use of online channels for conducting sales transactions have and may continue to lead to increased product diversion. Product diversion causes confusion regarding our distribution channels and negatively impacts the ability of our sales force to sell our products. It also creates a negative impression regarding the viability of the business opportunity for our sales force, which can harm our ability to recruit new people to join our sales force. Product diversion may also cause brand erosion and negatively impact the brand value perception. Product diversion schemes may also involve illegal importation, investment or other activities and harm our brand if gray market or counterfeit goods are passed off as our own. If we are unable to effectively address this issue or if diversion increases, our business could be harmed. Risks Associated with Our Operations in Mainland China Our operations in Mainland China are subject to significant government scrutiny, and we could be subject to fines or other penalties. Our operations in Mainland China are subject to significant regulatory scrutiny. The legal system in Mainland China provides government authorities broad latitude to conduct investigations, and many Chinese regulations, including those governing our business, are subject to significant interpretation, which may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Because of significant government concerns in Mainland China regarding improper direct selling activities, government regulators closely scrutinize activities of direct selling companies and activities that resemble direct selling. The government in Mainland China continues to inspect and review companies in the direct selling industry on a regular basis. We believe the regulatory environment in Mainland China continues to be challenging and restrictive. The government's scrutiny of activities within the health products and direct selling industries has been at higher levels since 2019, when the government conducted a 100-day campaign to review and inspect the health products and direct selling industries following negative media coverage generated by healthcare-related product claims made by another direct selling company in Mainland China. Since 2019, we have been receiving and addressing an increased number of government reviews, inspections, and inquiries and consumer complaints in Mainland China; our ability to hold certain business meetings has been limited; and negative media coverage has spread to include additional companies, including ours. Government regulators frequently make inquiries into our business activities and investigate complaints from consumers and others regarding our business. Some of these inquiries and investigations in the past have resulted in the payment of fines by us or members of our sales force, interruption of sales activities and warnings. Any determination by government regulators in these inquiries or investigations that our operations or activities, or the activities of our sales force, are not in compliance with applicable regulations could result in substantial fines, extended interruptions of business, and termination of necessary licenses and permits, including our direct selling and other licenses, all of which could harm our business. We train our sales force in Mainland China on how our Mainland China business model differs from our global business model. However, Sales Leaders in Mainland China may attend regional and global events or interact with Sales Leaders from other markets. Although our global model and Mainland China business model differ, mistakes may be made as to how those working in Mainland China should promote the business in Mainland China. These mistakes by our sales force, or allegations of such mistakes, have led, and may in the future lead, to government reviews and investigations of our operations in Mainland China, as well as adverse publicity, reputational harm and adjustments or interruptions to our operations, all of which has and could in the future have a significant negative impact on our revenue and the number of Sales Leaders and Customers in the region. If direct selling regulations in Mainland China are modified, interpreted or enforced in a manner that results in negative changes to our business model or the imposition of a range of potential penalties, our business could be significantly negatively impacted. The government of Mainland China has adopted direct selling and anti-pyramiding regulations that impose significant restrictions and limitations on businesses in our industry. Most notably, the regulations prohibit multi-level compensation, which is the basis of how we compensate our sales force outside of Mainland China. The regulations also prohibit overseas personnel from participating in direct selling in Mainland China. We have structured our business model in Mainland China based on several factors: the guidance we have received from government officials, our interpretation of applicable regulations, our understanding of the practices of other international direct selling companies operating in Mainland China, and our understanding as to how regulators are interpreting and enforcing the regulations. The regulatory environment in Mainland China continues to be challenging and restrictive. We will evaluate potential changes to the structure of our sales compensation in Mainland China to address the evolving commercial environment and, as the need arises, the evolving regulatory environment. Any such changes could have a negative impact on our sales in that market. Members of our sales force in Mainland China do not participate in our global sales compensation plan but are instead compensated according to a separate compensation model. We generally compensate our Sales Leaders in Mainland China at a level that is competitive with other direct selling companies in the market and comparable to the compensation of our Sales Leaders globally. Other than our direct selling subsidiary, we also have a separate subsidiary in Mainland China that is a registered independent entity that engages in cross-border e-commerce, through which one of our U.S. subsidiaries can sell a limited selection of products to consumers in Mainland China for their personal consumption. Cross-border e-commerce is separated from the direct selling sales channel in Mainland China. Our Sales Leaders can contract with the China entity, promote this cross-border e-commerce platform to introduce consumers to place orders on this platform, and receive limited compensation in return. Through this entity, the U.S. subsidiary sells ageLOC Meta, ageLOC Youth and certain other overseas products, which are neither registered for retail sale in Mainland China nor registered specifically as direct selling products and, therefore, can only be sold to local consumers for their personal consumption, cannot be sold through the direct selling channel, and cannot be resold. We also plan to begin selling additional overseas products through this channel. Although we take measures (1) to maintain legal separation between our cross-border e-commerce entity and our direct selling entity; and (2) to ensure the products sold on our cross-border e-commerce platform are for consumers' personal consumption only, our business in Mainland China could be negatively impacted if regulatory authorities elect to attribute these cross-border e-commerce sales activities and related product claims, or the accompanying actions of our sales force, to our direct selling business, and make a determination they are in violation of direct selling, customs or other applicable laws. Our Mainland China business also has an e-commerce platform in which it sells products directly to customers. We permit members of our sales force to promote this e-commerce platform and refer customers to it, in addition to their participation in our direct selling business, and they receive compensation based on our sales on this platform to customers they have referred. Although we take measures to segregate this e-commerce business from our direct selling business as appropriate, it is possible that our business in Mainland China could be negatively impacted if regulatory authorities determine that these e-commerce sales activities and compensation are inconsistent with the direct selling laws. The nature of the political, regulatory and legal systems in Mainland China gives regulatory agencies at both the local and central levels of government broad discretion to interpret and enforce regulations as they deem appropriate to promote social stability. We face a risk that regulators may change the way in which they currently interpret and enforce the direct selling regulations, or that such regulations may be modified. If our business practices are deemed to be in violation of applicable regulations as they may be interpreted or enforced, in particular our use of the sales productivity of a Sales Leader him/herself and of the sales force that such Sales Leader trains, collaborates with, supports and services in setting his/her salary or service fee and determining their position/title on a quarterly basis, then we could be sanctioned, required to change our business model, and/or have our direct selling license revoked, any of which could significantly harm our business. Our ability to expand our business in Mainland China could be negatively impacted if we are unable to obtain additional necessary national and local government approvals in Mainland China. To expand our direct selling model into additional provinces in Mainland China, we currently must obtain a series of approvals from district, city, provincial and national government agencies with respect to each province in which we wish to expand. Government authorities have not been issuing new licenses since the beginning of the 100-day action in 2019. When the process for obtaining government approvals to conduct direct selling is operational, it often evolves and is lengthy, as we are required to work with a large number of provincial, city, district and national government authorities. The complexity of the approval process as well as the government's continued cautious approach as direct selling develops in Mainland China makes it difficult to predict the timeline for obtaining these approvals. Furthermore, any media or regulatory scrutiny of our business in Mainland China could increase the time and difficulty we may face in obtaining additional licenses. If media or regulatory scrutiny of our business in Mainland China results in significant delays in obtaining licenses elsewhere in Mainland China, or if the current processes for obtaining approvals are delayed further for any reason or are changed or interpreted differently than currently understood, our ability to receive direct selling licenses in Mainland China and our growth prospects in this market could be negatively impacted. If we are not able to register products for sale in Mainland China, our business could be harmed. We face lengthy timelines with respect to product registrations in Mainland China. The process for obtaining product permits and licenses may require extended periods of time that may prevent us from launching new product initiatives in Mainland China on the same timelines as other markets around the world. For example, a vast majority of products marketed in Mainland China as "health foods" are subject to extensive laboratory and clinical analysis by government authorities, and with a few exceptions, the product registration process in Mainland China takes a minimum of two years and may be substantially longer. We market both "health foods" and "general foods" in Mainland China. There is some risk associated with the common practice in Mainland China of marketing a product as a "general food" without any health food claims while applying to the authorities for "health food" classification. If government officials feel the categorization of our products is inconsistent with product claims, form of delivery, ingredients or function, we could be prohibited or limited in marketing such products in Mainland China in their current form. As we expand our direct selling channel, we face additional product marketing restrictions compared to our retail store channel. Under applicable direct selling regulations in Mainland China, we can only register products for direct selling if we manufacture them and if they fall within categories that are authorized for direct selling, such as cosmetics, cleaning supplies, health foods, healthcare devices, small kitchen utensils and household appliances. Products that are not registered for direct selling are prohibited from being marketed or sold through our direct sales channel. The process for registering products for the direct sales channel in Mainland China is subject to delays; in fact, government authorities have not been processing new registrations for direct selling since the beginning of the 100-day action in 2019. Any marketing or sale of non-direct selling products by our independent direct sellers could result in negative publicity, fines and other government sanctions being imposed against us, including if a product is initially classified as a direct selling product but is later re-classified. Risks Associated with Epidemics and Other Widespread Crises Epidemics and other crises have negatively impacted our business and may do so in the future. Due to the person-to-person nature of direct selling, our results of operations have been, and likely will in the future be, harmed if the fear of a communicable and rapidly spreading disease, or another type of crisis such as a natural disaster, results in travel restrictions or causes people to avoid group meetings, gatherings or interactions with other people. The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 and ensuing pandemic resulted in significant contraction of economies around the world and interrupted global supply chains as many governments issued stay-at-home orders to combat COVID-19. Government-imposed restrictions and public hesitance regarding in-person gatherings, travel and visiting public places reduced our sales force's ability to hold sales meetings, resulted in cancellations of key sales leader events and incentive trips, and required us to temporarily close our walk-in and fulfillment locations in some markets where we had such properties. Our supply chain and logistics also incurred some interruptions and cost impacts, such as difficulties in obtaining some ingredients and in shipping products in some markets. All of these factors and other events related to COVID-19 negatively impacted our sales and operations and could repeat in the event of future epidemics or other crises. In addition, during a widespread crisis, regulators are vigilant for companies that may be exploiting the crisis to the detriment of consumers. For example, during 2020 to 2022, the FTC issued letters that warned several direct-selling companies to remove and address claims that they or members of their sales force were making about their products' ability to treat, cure or prevent COVID-19 and/or about the earnings that people who suffered the loss of a job or income could make. Although we take steps to educate our sales force on proper claims, if members of our sales force make improper claims, or if regulators determine we are making any improper claims, it could lead to an investigation and could harm our business and reputation. International Risks Our ability to conduct business in international markets may be affected by political, legal, tax and regulatory risks. Our ability to capitalize on growth in new international markets and to maintain the current level of operations in our existing international markets is exposed to risks associated with our international operations, including: - the possibility that a government might ban or severely restrict our sales compensation and business models; - the possibility that local civil unrest, political instability, or changes in diplomatic or trade relationships might disrupt our supply chain or other operations in one or more markets-for example, the ongoing conflict in Russia and Ukraine has caused distraction to our sales force; - the lack of well-established or reliable legal systems in certain areas where we operate; - the presence of high inflation in the economies of international markets in which we operate; - the possibility that a government authority might impose legal, tax, customs, or other financial burdens on us or our sales force, due, for example, to the structure of our operations in various markets; - the possibility that a government authority might challenge the status of our sales force as independent contractors or impose employment or social taxes on our sales force; and - the possibility that governments may impose currency remittance restrictions limiting our ability to repatriate cash. It is unpredictable what impact, if any, the recent change in political administrations in the United States will have on the above risks. If actions by the United States or other jurisdictions cause any of the above risks to materialize, our financial position and results of operations could be negatively affected. There has been an increasing level of tension in U.S.-China relations over the last several years. Given the significant size of our China business, our business could be harmed if relations continue to deteriorate or additional sanctions or restrictions are imposed by either government. In addition, there have been adverse public reaction and media attention to statements made by representatives of other businesses related to these issues that have adversely affected business. We could similarly face adverse public or media attention, and potentially increased regulatory scrutiny, as a result of increased trade or political tensions or any statements or actions by employees or our sales force that generate publicity with respect to these issues. We are subject to financial risks as a result of our international operations, including exposure to foreign-currency fluctuations, currency controls and inflation in foreign markets, all of which could impact our financial position and results of operations. In 2024, approximately 70% of our sales occurred in markets outside of the United States in each market's respective local currency. Foreign-currency fluctuations affect our financial position and results of operations. We purchase inventory primarily in the United States in U.S. dollars. In preparing our financial statements, we translate revenue and expenses in our markets outside the United States from their local currencies into U.S. dollars using weighted-average exchange rates. If the U.S. dollar strengthens relative to local currencies, our reported revenue, gross profit and net income will likely be reduced. Foreign-currency fluctuations also cause losses and gains resulting from translation of foreign-currency-denominated balances on our balance sheet. We also face the risk of currency controls. If foreign governments restrict transfers of cash out of their country and control exchange rates, we may be limited as to the timing and amount of cash we can repatriate and may not be able to repatriate cash at beneficial exchange rates, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows. We typically fund the cash requirements of our operations in the United States through intercompany dividends, intercompany loans and intercompany charges for products, use of intangible property, and corporate services. However, some markets impose government-approval or other requirements for the repatriation of dividends. For example, in Mainland China, we are unable to repatriate cash from current operations in the form of dividends until we file the necessary statutory financial statements for the relevant period. We also have experienced delays in repatriating cash from Argentina. As of December 31, 2024, we had $27.4 million in cash denominated in Chinese RMB, and our intercompany receivable with our Argentina subsidiary was $22.4 million. In addition, high levels of inflation and currency devaluations in any of our markets could negatively impact our balance sheet and results of operations. Gains and losses resulting from the remeasurement of non-U.S. dollar monetary assets and liabilities of our subsidiaries operating in highly inflationary economies are recorded in our net earnings. For example, during 2018, Argentina was designated as a highly inflationary economy under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles; accordingly, we began to apply highly inflationary accounting for our Argentina operations, which has resulted in additional foreign-currency charges. Other markets may be designated as highly inflationary economies in the future, which could result in further foreign-currency charges. Although we may engage in transactions intended to reduce our exposure to foreign-currency fluctuations, there can be no assurance that these transactions will be effective. Complex global political and economic dynamics can affect exchange rate fluctuations. For example, the implementation of tariffs, border taxes or other measures related to the level of trade between the United States and other markets could impact the value of the U.S. dollar. It is difficult to predict future fluctuations and the effect these fluctuations may have upon future reported results or our overall financial condition. Changes to tariff and import/export regulations, and trade disputes between the United States and other jurisdictions may have a negative effect on global economic conditions and our business, financial results and financial condition. The United States and other foreign jurisdictions may change customs regulations or tariff rates that are applied to our imports or exports at any time. Tariff changes are difficult to predict and may cause us material short-term or long-term cost fluctuations. The new political administration in the United States has signaled an intention to use tariffs more robustly in pursuing government policy and has already implemented some new tariffs. When increases are made to U.S. duty rates or tariffs, reciprocal action by other countries sometimes occurs, and any such increases could impact the price of our products and cause a decline in the demand for our products. We rely on the use of Free Trade Agreements, where available, that may experience alterations, suspensions or cancellations, which could increase our customs expense or otherwise harm our business. In addition to duties and tariffs, any actions taken by the United States or by foreign countries to further implement trade policy changes, including limiting foreign investment or trade, increasing regulatory requirements, or other actions that impact our ability to obtain necessary licenses or approvals could negatively impact our business. These actions are unpredictable, and any of them could also have a material adverse effect on global economic conditions and the stability of global financial markets, significantly reduce global trade, restrict our access to suppliers or customers, and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Human Capital Risks If we are unable to retain our existing sales force and recruit additional people to join our sales force, our revenue may not increase and may even decline. Our products are primarily marketed by our sales force, and we depend on them to generate virtually all of our revenue. Our sales force may terminate their services at any time, and like most direct selling companies, we experience high turnover among our sales force from year to year. People who join our company to purchase our products for personal consumption or for short-term income goals frequently only stay with us for a short time or are less consistent in their participation. Sales Leaders who have committed time and effort to build a sales organization will generally stay for longer periods. To increase our revenue, we must increase the number of and/or the sales productivity of our sales force. We must also expand our outreach and outbound efforts to attract, connect and nurture new customers for a wider consumer base who purchase products and whom we can foster along a consumer journey to promote retention and higher lifetime value. We have experienced fluctuations in Sales Leaders, Paid Affiliates and Customers in the past and will likely continue to experience such fluctuations in the future. For example, our Customers in Mainland China declined 27% from December 31, 2023 to December 31, 2024, and during the two-year period from December 31, 2022 to December 31, 2024, our global Customers, Paid Affiliates and Sales Leaders declined 27%, 39% and 24%, respectively. If our business, products and initiatives do not drive growth and/or sales productivity in Sales Leaders, Paid Affiliates and Customers, our operating results could be further harmed. The number and productivity of our sales force is negatively impacted by several additional factors, including: - any adverse publicity or negative public perception regarding us, our products or ingredients, our distribution channel, or our industry or competitors; - lack of interest in, dissatisfaction with, or the technical failure of, our products or digital tools; - lack of compelling products or income opportunities, including through our sales compensation plans and incentive trips and other offerings; - negative sales force reaction to changes in our sales compensation plans or our failure to make changes that would be necessary to keep our compensation competitive with the market; - interactions with our company, including our actions to enforce our policies and procedures and the quality of our customer service; - any regulatory actions or charges against us or others in our industry, as well as regulatory changes that impact product formulations and sales viability; - general economic, business, public health and geopolitical conditions, including employment levels, employment trends such as the gig and sharing economies and affiliate marketing, pandemics or other conditions that curtail person-to-person interactions, and the ongoing conflicts in Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Hamas which have caused distraction to our sales force; - changes in the policies of social media platforms and product marketplaces used to prospect or recruit potential consumers and sales force participants; - recruiting efforts of our competitors and changes in consumer-loyalty trends; - potential saturation or maturity levels in a given market, which could negatively impact our ability to attract and retain our sales force in such market; - growing gig economy competition which may draw away potential product sellers, affiliates, and influencers; - our sales force's increased use of social sharing channels, which may enable them to more easily engage their consumers and sales network in other opportunities;- lack of sufficient tools to create customer interest in our products and to manage and build a personalized business; and - our and our sales force's ability to implement social commerce and other selling platforms that appeal to consumers. We depend on our key personnel and Sales Leaders, and the loss of the services provided by any of our executive officers, other key employees or key Sales Leaders could harm our business and results of operations. Our success depends to a significant degree upon the continued contributions of our senior and regional management, many of whom would be difficult to replace. Our senior and regional management employees may voluntarily terminate their employment with us at any time, and it is not uncommon for employees of direct-selling companies, including employees of our company, to terminate their employment and begin working for another direct-selling company. In addition, we need to continue to attract and develop qualified management personnel to sustain growth in our markets. Attracting and retaining qualified personnel has been an increased challenge during the current competitive employment environment. In addition, there has been downward pressure on our employees' incentive compensation in recent years, and our recent restructurings have in some cases caused employees to take on additional responsibilities, both of which have presented challenges to our employee morale and could lead to employee attrition. If we are not able to successfully retain existing personnel and identify, hire and integrate new personnel, our business and growth prospects could be harmed. The success of our business also depends on our key Sales Leaders. For the three months ended December 31, 2024, we had approximately 36,912 Sales Leaders. As of December 31, 2024, approximately 253 Sales Leaders occupied the highest levels under our global sales compensation plan, and in Mainland China approximately 72 key Sales Leaders were playing a significant role in managing, training and servicing our sales force in that market and driving sales. We rely on these Sales Leaders (or other sales force members that they train, collaborate with, support and service) for a substantial majority of our revenue. As a result, the loss of a high-level or key Sales Leader or a group of leading Sales Leaders, whether by their own choice or through disciplinary actions by us for violations of our policies and procedures, could negatively impact our growth and our revenue. Risks Associated with Our Manufacturing and Operations Production difficulties, quality control problems, inaccurate forecasting, shortages in ingredients, and reliance on our suppliers could harm our business. Production difficulties, quality control problems, inaccurate forecasting, and our reliance on third-party suppliers to manufacture and deliver products that meet our specifications in a timely manner have harmed our business and could do so in the future. Occasionally, we have experienced production difficulties with respect to our products, including the availability of labor, raw materials, components, packaging, and products that do not meet our specifications and quality control standards. These production difficulties and quality problems have in the past resulted, and could in the future result, in stock outages or shortages in our markets with respect to such products, harm our sales, or create inventory write-downs for unusable products. In addition, we and manufacturers in our supply chain acquire ingredients, components, products and packaging from third-party suppliers and manufacturers. A loss of any of these suppliers and any difficulties in finding or transitioning to alternative suppliers could harm our business. In addition, we obtain some products and ingredients from sole suppliers that own or control the product formulations, ingredients or other intellectual property rights associated with such products. We also license the right to distribute some of our products from third parties. In the event we are unable to maintain or renew our contracts with any of these suppliers, manufacturers or other third parties, we may need to discontinue some products or develop substitute products, which could harm our revenue. In addition, if we experience supply shortages, price increases or regulatory impediments with respect to the raw materials, ingredients, components or packaging we use for our products, we may need to seek alternative supplies or suppliers and may experience difficulties in finding replacements that are comparable in quality and price. For example, some of our products, including ageLOC Meta and ageLOC Youth (Youthspan or Y-Span in some markets), incorporate unique natural ingredients that may only be harvested once per year and/or may have limited global supplies. If demand exceeds forecasts, we may have difficulties in obtaining additional supplies to meet the excess demand until the next growing season. If we are unable to successfully respond to such issues, our business could be harmed. The loss of or a disruption in our manufacturing, supply chain and distribution operations, or significant expenses or violations incurred by such operations, could adversely affect our business. As a company engaged in manufacturing, distribution, and research and development on a global scale, we are subject to the risks inherent in such activities, including industrial accidents, climate or environmental events, fires, floods, earthquakes, labor shortages, strikes and other labor or industrial disputes, disruptions in logistics or information systems, loss or impairment of key manufacturing or distribution sites, import and export restrictions or delays, product quality control, safety, licensing requirements and other regulatory or government issues, as well as natural disasters, pandemics, border disputes, global uncertainties, acts of terrorism, and other external or macroeconomic factors over which we have no control. For example, the long-term impacts of climate change, whether involving physical risks (such as extreme weather conditions, drought, or rising sea levels) or transition risks (such as regulatory or technology changes) may be widespread and unpredictable. Certain impacts of physical risk may include temperature changes that increase the heating and cooling costs at our facilities; extreme weather patterns that affect the production or sourcing of certain components; flooding and storms that damage or destroy our buildings and inventory; and heat and extreme weather events that cause long-term disruption or threats to the habitability of our customers' communities. These risks may be heightened if we consolidate certain of our manufacturing, distribution, or supply facilities or if we are unable to successfully enhance our disaster recovery planning. These risks also increase as we pursue our current strategy of acquiring manufacturing companies and thereby conducting more of our manufacturing in-house. The loss of, or disruption or damage to, any of our facilities or centers or those of our third-party manufacturers could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, results of operations and financial condition. Also, if we are unable to maximize our production output (whether through internal or external customer orders) in our owned manufacturing facilities, this could increase our manufacturing variance and harm our business. We have experienced, and may continue to experience, disruptions to the transportation channels used in our supply chain and distribution operations, including increased airport and shipping port congestion, a lack of transportation capacity, increased fuel expenses, import or export controls or delays, and labor disputes or shortages. Disruptions in our container shipments may result in increased costs, including the additional use of air freight to meet demand. Congestion to ports can affect previously negotiated contracts with shipping companies, resulting in unexpected increases in shipping costs and reduction in our profitability. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in several disruptions and delays, as well as quantity limits and price increases, in our global transportation channels. In addition, our manufacturing facilities are subject to numerous regulations, including labor regulations and environmental regulations that govern the storage, discharge, handling, emission, generation, manufacture, use and disposal of chemicals and other materials. We will also likely become subject to new regulations in these areas, which could require substantial expenditures. Violations of existing or new requirements could result in financial penalties and other enforcement actions and could require us to halt one or more portions of our operations until a violation is cured. The costs of curing incidents of non-compliance, resolving enforcement actions or private-party actions that might be initiated against us, or of satisfying new legal requirements could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations. Our business could be negatively impacted if we fail to execute our product launch process or ongoing product sales due to difficulty in forecasting or increased pressure on our supply chain, information systems and management. Prior to making a product generally available for purchase in a market, we often do one or more introductory offerings of the product, such as a preview of the product to our Sales Leaders or other product introduction or promotion. These offerings sometimes generate significant activity and a high level of purchasing, which can result in a higher-than-normal increase in revenue during the quarter and skew year-over-year and sequential comparisons. These offerings may also increase our product return rate. We have, and may in the future, experienced difficulty effectively managing growth associated with these offerings and may face increased risk of improper sales force activities and related government scrutiny. In addition, the size and condensed schedule of these product offerings increase pressure on our supply chain and order processing systems. We have failed, and may in the future fail, to appropriately scale our system capacity and operations in response to unanticipated changes in demand for our existing products or to the demand for new products, which reduces our sales force's confidence in our business and could harm our reputation and profitability. As our sales force increases its use of social platforms to interact with customers, our business results could be adversely affected if our implementation of new platforms and processes to support our sales force is delayed. In addition, we are dependent on third parties for testing and delivery of portions of these and other of our information system platforms. Unanticipated changes or system failures by third parties could harm our ability to meet the expectations of our sales force, thus resulting in harm to our revenue, reputation and sales force confidence in our systems. If we do not accurately forecast sales levels in each market for product launches or ongoing product sales, obtain sufficient ingredients, components or packaging, or produce a sufficient supply to meet demand, we may incur higher expedited shipping costs and we may temporarily run out of stock of certain products, which could negatively impact the enthusiasm of our sales force and consumers. Conversely, if demand does not meet our expectations for a product launch or ongoing product sales or if we change our planned launch strategies or initiatives, we could incur inventory write-downs. For example, during the third quarter of 2023, we made the strategic decision to re-balance and narrow our product portfolio, which resulted in an incremental $65.7 million inventory write-off. We incurred an additional inventory write-off of $38.8 million during the fourth quarter of 2024. Each of these issues has impacted us in the past, and they could again occur with our ongoing or future product offerings. If we fail to effectively forecast product demand in the product launch process or for ongoing product sales, our reputation and profitability also could be negatively impacted. If we are unable to effectively manage our growth in certain markets, our business and operations could be harmed. At times, we can experience significant growth in one or more of our markets. For example, during 2020 we experienced significant growth in some of the markets in the Americas and Europe. Growth can strain our ability to effectively manage our operations, as it requires us to expand our management team, labor force, technology bandwidth and capabilities, and manufacturing operations. Insufficient management execution to support growth could result in, among other things, product delays or shortages, decreases in product quality, service level challenges, operating mistakes and errors, inadequate customer service, inappropriate claims or promotions by our sales force, and governmental inquires and investigations, all of which could harm our revenue and ability to generate sustained growth and result in unanticipated expenses. In addition, we need to continue to attract and develop qualified management personnel to sustain growth. If we are not able to successfully retain existing personnel and identify, hire and integrate new personnel, our business and growth prospects could be harmed. In addition, to the extent we expand into new markets, our efforts might not be successful in driving growth. New markets may have competitive conditions, consumer tastes and discretionary spending patterns that are more difficult to predict or satisfy than our existing markets. We may have difficulty attracting Brand Affiliates to our business opportunity due to our lack of name recognition, growing competition in the affiliate gig and sharing economies, or other reasons, and it may be difficult to find and retain qualified employees and vendors. We also might be unable to successfully navigate the risks inherent in international operations, such as differing legal and regulatory requirements that may apply to our products and/or operations, including those that pertain to privacy and data protection, direct selling, employment and intellectual property. If we do not successfully execute plans to enter new markets, these new markets may not generate growth and may be unprofitable, causing our business, financial condition or results of operations to be adversely affected. System failures, capacity constraints and other information technology difficulties could harm our business. Our business operations, spanning across global markets and involving intricate sales compensation systems, heavily depend on a variety of interconnected technology platforms. These include our websites, mobile apps, cloud services, data centers, databases, and networks. These systems are critical for accepting and processing orders, managing our sales force and customer support, calculating and distributing compensation, running corporate and regional operations, generating accurate financial reports, and other aspects of our business. Ensuring their functionality and reliability is essential for maintaining our reputation, sustaining operations, and supporting our sales force and customer base. We are actively modernizing our e-commerce platform to adapt to emerging trends in online retail, social media integration, and hybrid marketing strategies. To support this transformation, we have partnered with Infosys Limited as our primary managed services provider, leveraging their expertise to enhance operational efficiency and deliver results through our digital channels. While these initiatives are designed to strengthen our competitive position, they come with inherent risks tied to implementation complexity and dependency on third parties. Our systems, as well as those managed by third-party providers, are exposed to potential disruptions from events such as fires, floods, earthquakes or other natural disasters, human error, physical break-ins, computer viruses, cyberattacks, power outages, system malfunctions and other events. Despite investing in preventive measures like redundancies, enhanced security, and disaster recovery plans, we have experienced system failures, outages, cyberattacks and other disruptions, and we will likely experience them in the future. Any prolonged system disruption could harm our ability to operate effectively, damage our reputation, or lead to financial losses. The shift to cloud-based and outsourced solutions further heightens our reliance on third-party providers, including Amazon Web Services for core computing needs and Infosys Limited for managed services and digital channel operations. Disruptions in these partnerships or challenges in transitioning services could delay critical business processes and increase operational costs. Our digital transformation efforts, though critical for our future growth, require significant investment and come with the risk of unforeseen challenges. For example, in 2018, we incurred substantial costs, including $49 million in asset impairments and $22 million in severance-related expenses, as we overhauled outdated technology systems. We have incurred additional asset impairments, most recently in the fourth quarter of 2024 when we wrote down $29 million of information technology assets. As we continue to re-architect legacy systems and roll out new tools, we face the possibility of further costs, delays, or disruptions. Moreover, our growing business places additional demands on our technology infrastructure, particularly our e-commerce channels. Despite ongoing investments to expand and upgrade our systems, any inability to handle increased traffic or transaction volumes could impede order processing, impact customer satisfaction, and harm our financial performance. In summary, while we are committed to evolving and enhancing our technology systems, these initiatives involve considerable risks. Any failure to address these challenges effectively could disrupt our operations, erode stakeholder confidence, and adversely affect our financial results. Any acquired companies or future acquisitions may expose us to additional risks. We have acquired certain businesses, and we plan to continue to do so in the future as we encounter acquisition prospects that would complement our current product offerings, increase the size and geographic scope of our operations or otherwise offer growth and operating efficiency opportunities. At any particular time, we may be in various stages of assessment, discussion and/or negotiation with regard to one or more potential acquisitions or investments, not all of which will be consummated. Acquisitions involve numerous risks and uncertainties, and some of our past acquisition targets have been in industries in which we lack operational or market experience. Our past acquisitions have entailed, and future acquisitions could entail, numerous risks, including: - difficulties in integrating acquired operations, employees or products; - the difficulties of imposing financial and operating controls on the acquired companies and their management and the potential costs of doing so; - the potential loss of key employees, customers, suppliers or distributors from acquired businesses; - disruption to our direct selling channel; - diversion of management's and other employees' attention from our core business; - the failure to achieve the strategic objectives of these acquisitions; - increased fixed costs; - financing structures that dilute the interests of our stockholders and/or result in an increase in our indebtedness; - the failure of the acquired businesses to achieve the results we have projected in either the near or long term; - the assumption of unexpected liabilities, including litigation risks or compliance issues not discovered during pre-acquisition diligence; - adverse effects on existing business relationships with our suppliers, sales force or consumers; - the risk of being unable to protect intellectual property related to newly acquired technologies; and - risks associated with entering markets or industries in which we have limited or no prior experience, including limited expertise in running the business, developing the technology, and selling and servicing the products. The expansion of our Rhyz business into new businesses has been viewed negatively by some of our Sales Leaders as these new companies sell products that are similar to those of our core business and are viewed as using our resources for non-core businesses. These perspectives of our Sales Leaders could have a material negative impact on the number or productivity of our Sales Leaders and result in a reduction in our revenue. Our failure to successfully complete the integration of any acquired business, a failure to adjust our fixed costs quickly enough or sufficiently to adapt to rapidly changing market conditions, or any other of the risks discussed above could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. In addition, there can be no assurance that we will be able to identify suitable acquisition candidates, consummate acquisitions on favorable terms or realize the anticipated benefits of an acquisition. Product Legal and Regulatory Risks Regulations governing our products, including the formulation, registration, pre-approval, marketing and sale of our products, could harm our business. Our products are subject to extensive government regulation by numerous federal, state, and local government agencies and authorities. Many of these laws and regulations involve a high level of subjectivity, are subject to interpretation, and vary significantly from market to market. These laws and regulations can, and often do, have several impacts on our business, including but not limited to: - delays in, or altogether prohibitions on, introducing or selling a product or ingredient in one or more markets; - delays and expenses associated with the registration and approval process for a product; - limitations on our ability to import products into a market; - delays and expenses associated with compliance, such as record keeping, documentation of the properties of certain products, labeling, and scientific substantiation; - limitations on the claims we can make regarding our products; and - product reformulations, or the recall or discontinuation of certain products that cannot be reformulated to comply with new regulations. We have observed a general increase in regulatory activity and activism in the United States and across many markets globally where we operate, and the regulatory landscape is becoming more complex with increasingly strict requirements. In particular, the requirements are impacting the ingredients we can include in our products, the accepted quantities of those ingredients, and the quality and characterization of the ingredients. Global regulators have in recent years become overall more restrictive on the accepted levels of active ingredients that we can use in our product, in some cases banning them outright. They have also become more restrictive on permitted contaminant levels in ingredients and, in many cases, have forced complete removal of such contaminants. In certain cases, such as regarding some pesticides which are virtually ubiquitous in nature, it has proven difficult to comply with the requirements. Further, many of the restrictions regarding ingredient quality are not directly applicable to our products, leaving the possibility that our interpretation of compliance may not match that of the enforcing authorities. Often there is a lack of an equivalent active ingredient present in the marketplace. In other cases, the removal or reduction of a technical ingredient, such as various types of parabens, leads to a significant change to the character of the product that may make it no longer desirable or safe to the consumer. If this trend in new regulations continues, we may find it necessary to alter some of the ways we have traditionally marketed our products in order to stay in compliance with a changing regulatory landscape and this could add to the costs of our operations and/or have an adverse impact on our business. Many laws and regulations govern the registration, pre-market approval or other aspects of regulatory oversight of our products. For example, in the United States, some legislators and industry critics have pushed for years to increase regulatory authority by the FDA over nutritional supplements. In 2011, the FDA proposed draft guidance to clarify the FDA's interpretation of the dietary ingredient notification requirements, and in 2016, the FDA issued revised draft guidance that superseded the 2011 version. In April 2024, the FDA issued new draft guidance replacing and expanding on the 2016 revised guidance. This draft guidance is not yet final but indicates that the FDA is expanding its definition of what is considered a "new dietary ingredient". While still in flux, if enacted as proposed, this guidance could impose new and significant regulatory barriers for our nutritional supplement products or unique ingredients, which could delay or inhibit our ability to formulate, introduce and sell nutritional supplements as we have in the past. Similarly, from time to time, efforts are made by some individuals or groups to repeal the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 ("DSHEA"), the U.S. law that provides a separate body of regulations for dietary supplements as compared to drugs. Such a repeal would result in significant burdens to our product development, and the costs of running our business would increase significantly. We face similar pressures in our other markets, which continue to set restrictions on ingredients and their acceptable maximum levels, as well as on ingredient characterization, quality and levels. In Europe, for example, we are unable to market supplements that contain ingredients that were not marketed in Europe prior to May 1997 ("novel foods") without going through an extensive registration and pre-market approval process. The FDA currently does not have a pre-market approval system for cosmetics. However, cosmetic products may become subject to more extensive regulation in the future, even beyond the requirements mandated by the recently enacted Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022. These events could interrupt the marketing and sale of our products, severely damage our brand reputation and image in the marketplace, increase the cost of our products, cause us to fail to meet customer expectations or cause us to be unable to deliver merchandise in sufficient quantities or of sufficient quality to our stores, any of which could result in lost sales. Our operations could be harmed if new laws or regulations are enacted that restrict our ability to market or distribute our products or impose additional burdens or requirements on us in order to continue selling our products. In addition, the adoption of new regulations or changes in the interpretations and enforcement of existing regulations may result in significant compliance costs or discontinuation of product sales and may impair the marketability of our products, resulting in significant loss of net sales. We cannot predict the nature of any future laws, regulations, interpretations, or applications, nor can we determine what effect additional governmental regulations or administrative orders, when and if promulgated, would have on our business. If new or existing laws and regulations restrict, inhibit or delay our ability to introduce or market our products or limit the claims we are able to make regarding our products, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results. If we fail to comply with the laws and regulations governing our products, we could face enforcement action, and we could be fined or forced to alter or stop selling our products. Government regulations and private party actions relating to the marketing and advertising of our products and services may restrict, inhibit or delay our ability to sell our products and harm our business. Government authorities regulate advertising and product claims regarding the efficacy and benefits of our products. These regulatory authorities typically require adequate and reliable scientific substantiation to support any marketing claims. What constitutes such reliable scientific substantiation can vary widely from market to market and there is no assurance that the research and development efforts that we undertake to support our claims will be deemed adequate for any particular product or claim. If we are unable to show adequate and reliable scientific substantiation for our product claims, or if our marketing materials or the marketing materials of our sales force make claims that exceed the scope of allowed claims for dietary supplements, cosmetics or devices that we offer, the FDA or other regulatory authorities could take enforcement action requiring us to revise our marketing materials, amend our claims or stop selling certain products, which could harm our business. For example, in recent years, the FDA has issued warning letters to many cosmetic companies alleging improper structure/function claims regarding their cosmetic products, including, for example, product claims regarding gene activity, cellular rejuvenation, and rebuilding collagen. There is a degree of subjectivity in determining whether a claim is an improper structure/function claim. Given this subjectivity and our research and development focus on the sources of aging and the influence of certain ingredients on gene expression, there is a risk that we could receive a warning letter, be required to modify our product claims or take other actions to satisfy the FDA if the FDA determines any of our marketing materials include improper structure/function claims for our cosmetic products. In addition, plaintiffs' lawyers have filed class action lawsuits against some of our competitors after our competitors received these FDA warning letters. There can be no assurance that we will not be subject to government actions or class action lawsuits, which could harm our business. In the United States, the FTC's Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising ("Guides") require disclosure of material connections between an endorser and the company they are endorsing, and they generally do not allow marketing using atypical results. Our sales force has historically used testimonials and "before and after" photos to market and sell some of our popular products such as our spa devices and ageLOC Transformation anti-aging skin care system. We intend to continue to use testimonials for our popular products, including weight management products and beauty products. In highly regulated and scrutinized product categories such as weight management, if we or our sales force fails to comply with the Guides or makes improper product claims, the FTC could bring an enforcement action against us and we could be fined and/or forced to alter our marketing materials. In addition, during 2023, the FTC sent notices of penalty offense to nearly 700 companies, including us, regarding the requirement of sufficient substantiation for product claims. Pursuant to the FTC's "penalty offense authority," companies that received the notice are expected to comply with the standards set in the FTC's prior administrative cases on this topic, and they could incur significant civil penalties if they or their representatives fail to do so. Additionally, state statutes throughout the United States create private rights of action for individuals claiming harm from false or misleading marketing claims that can lead to the assertion or filing of class action lawsuits. There can be no assurance that we will not be subject to class action lawsuits asserting false or misleading marketing claims, which could harm our business. Our operations could be harmed if we or our vendors fail to comply with Good Manufacturing Practices. Across our markets, there are regulations on a diverse range of Good Manufacturing Practices that apply to us and to our vendors covering product categories such as dietary supplements, cosmetics, foods, over-the-counter drugs and medical devices. The Good Manufacturing Practices impose stringent requirements on a variety of topics, including vendor qualifications, ingredient identification, manufacturing controls and record keeping. Ingredient identification requirements, which often require us to confirm the levels, identity and potency of ingredients listed on our product labels within a narrow range, are particularly burdensome and difficult for us because our products contain many different ingredients. Additionally, certain Good Manufacturing Practices obligate us to track and periodically report adverse events to government agencies. Compliance with these increasing regulations may further increase the cost of manufacturing certain of our products as we work with our vendors to assure they are qualified and in compliance. In addition, our operations could be harmed if regulatory authorities determine that we or our vendors are not in compliance with these regulations or if public reporting of adverse events harms our reputation for quality and safety. A finding of noncompliance may result in administrative warnings, penalties or actions impacting our ability to continue selling certain products, including public withdrawals, seizures and recalls. For example, we have had product recalls in the United States based on labeling issues. Problems associated with product recalls could be exacerbated due to the global nature of our business because a recall in one jurisdiction could lead to recalls in other jurisdictions. In addition, these risks associated with noncompliance could increase as we acquire businesses, including our current and future Rhyz businesses. If our current or any future device products are determined to be medical devices in a particular geographic market, or if our sales force uses these products for medical purposes or makes improper medical claims, our ability to continue to market and distribute such devices could be harmed, and we could face legal or regulatory actions. One of our strategies is to market unique and innovative products that allow our sales force to distinguish our products. As we pursue this strategy with our current and future device products, there is a risk that regulatory authorities in our markets could determine that these products must receive clearance or be registered as medical devices. Such a determination could restrict our ability to import or sell the product in such market until registration or clearance is obtained. The process for obtaining such registrations and clearances could require us to provide documentation concerning product manufacturing and clinical utility; to make design, specification and manufacturing process modifications to meet standards imposed on medical device companies; and to modify our marketing claims regarding the registered product. While we have not been required to register our device products as medical devices in most markets, we have registered some of them in some markets, including ageLOC Boost and Nu Skin Wellspa iO in Thailand and our ageLOC Galvanic Facial Spa and ageLOC Body Spa systems in Indonesia, Thailand, Peru and Colombia. We also sought and received clearance from the United States Food and Drug Administration to market our Nu Skin Facial Spa device and, more recently, our Nu Skin RenuSpa iO device for over-the-counter use. In some cases, challenges can arise even after we have completed the required registration/clearance process or determined that a product does not need registration/clearance. This could occur if a jurisdiction changes its laws or interpretations thereof, for example. In addition, if, in violation of our policies, our sales force attempts to import or export products from one market to another, makes medical claims regarding our products, or uses our products to perform medical diagnoses or other activities limited to licensed professionals or approved medical devices (in markets where the product is not approved), it could negatively impact our ability to market or sell these products and subject us to legal or regulatory actions. Because medical device regulations vary widely from market to market, registration or clearance in one market does not preclude challenges or delays in obtaining registration or clearance in other markets, nor does it preclude other markets from requiring us to make additional modifications or provide additional documentation as conditions to granting clearance. Furthermore, in some cases, registration or clearance to sell a product in one market may be used as precedent for requiring similar approval for the product in another market, or for similar products in the same market. These additional requirements could increase the cost associated with manufacturing and selling these products as non-medical devices in such markets. Any of the above factors could have a material negative impact on our ability to sell products and could negatively affect our financial results.