Commitments and Contingencies

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2023

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

Commitments

The following summarizes our principal contractual commitments, excluding open orders for purchases that support normal operations and are generally cancellable, as of June 30, 2023 (in millions):


	Six Months Ended December 31,		Year Ended December 31,
	2023		2024		2025		2026		2027		Thereafter		Total
Long-term debt principal and interest	$	1,082	$	10,626	$	7,293	$	5,034	$	10,399	$	63,814	$	98,248
Operating lease liabilities	5,624		9,649		9,024		8,334		7,602		47,520		87,753
Finance lease liabilities, including interest	1,917		2,245		1,433		1,269		1,077		7,592		15,533
Financing obligations, including interest (1)	234		464		457		464		471		6,712		8,802
Leases not yet commenced	558		2,009		1,887		1,897		1,926		15,712		23,989
Unconditional purchase obligations (2)	4,274		8,032		6,151		5,029		3,560		6,090		33,136
Other commitments (3)(4)	2,153		2,247		1,246		1,102		895		8,497		16,140
Total commitments	$	15,842	$	35,272	$	27,491	$	23,129	$	25,930	$	155,937	$	283,601

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(1)Includes non-cancellable financing obligations for fulfillment network and data center facilities. Excluding interest, current financing obligations of $266 million and $269 million are recorded within “Accrued expenses and other” and $6.7 billion and $6.6 billion are recorded within “Other long-term liabilities” as of December 31, 2022 and June 30, 2023. The weighted-average remaining term of the financing obligations was 17.9 years and 17.5 years and the weighted-average imputed interest rate was 3.1% as of December 31, 2022 and June 30, 2023.

(2)Includes unconditional purchase obligations related to long-term agreements to acquire and license digital media content that are not reflected on the consolidated balance sheets and certain products offered in our Whole Foods Market stores. For those digital media content agreements with variable terms, we do not estimate the total obligation beyond any minimum quantities and/or pricing as of the reporting date. Purchase obligations associated with renewal provisions solely at the option of the content provider are included to the extent such commitments are fixed or a minimum amount is specified.

(3)Includes asset retirement obligations, liabilities associated with digital media content agreements with initial terms greater than one year, and the estimated timing and amounts of payments for rent and tenant improvements associated with build-to-suit lease arrangements that are under construction.

(4)Excludes approximately $5.0 billion of accrued tax contingencies for which we cannot make a reasonably reliable estimate of the amount and period of payment, if any.

In August 2022, we entered into an agreement to acquire iRobot Corporation, as amended in July 2023, for approximately $1.7 billion, including its debt, subject to customary closing conditions. We expect to fund this acquisition with cash on hand.

Other Contingencies

We are disputing claims and denials of refunds or credits, and monitoring or evaluating potential claims, related to various non-income taxes (such as sales, value added, consumption, service, and similar taxes), including in jurisdictions in which we already collect and remit these taxes. These non-income tax controversies typically relate to (i) the taxability of products and services, including cross-border intercompany transactions, (ii) collection and withholding on transactions with third parties, and (iii) the adequacy of compliance with reporting obligations, including evolving documentation requirements. Due to the inherent complexity and uncertainty of these matters and the judicial and regulatory processes in certain jurisdictions, the final outcome of any such controversies may be materially different from our expectations.

Legal Proceedings

The Company is involved from time to time in claims, proceedings, and litigation, including the matters described in Item 8 of Part II, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data — Note 7 — Commitments and Contingencies — Legal Proceedings” of our 2022 Annual Report on Form 10-K and in Item 1 of Part I, “Financial Statements — Note 4 — Commitments and Contingencies — Legal Proceedings” of our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2023, as supplemented by the following:

In December 2018, Kove IO, Inc. filed a complaint against Amazon Web Services, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The complaint alleges, among other things, that Amazon S3 and DynamoDB infringe U.S. Patent Nos. 7,814,170 and 7,103,640, both entitled “Network Distributed Tracking Wire Transfer Protocol”; and 7,233,978, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Managing Location Information in a Network Separate from the Data to Which the Location Information Pertains.” The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of damages, enhanced damages, attorneys’ fees, costs, interest, and injunctive relief. In March 2022, the case was stayed pending resolution of review petitions we filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In November 2022, the stay was lifted. In July 2023, Kove alleged in its damages report that in the event of a finding of liability Amazon Web Services could be subject to $517 million to $1.03 billion in damages. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter.

In May 2023, Dialect, LLC filed a complaint against Amazon.com, Inc. and Amazon Web Services, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District for Virginia. The complaint alleges, among other things, that Amazon’s Alexa-enabled products and services, such as Echo devices, Fire tablets, Fire TV sticks, Fire TVs, Alexa, and Alexa Voice Services, infringe U.S. Patent Nos. 7,693,720 and 9,031,845, each entitled “Mobile Systems and Methods for Responding to Natural Language Speech Utterance”; 8,015,006, entitled “Systems and Methods for Processing Natural Language Speech Utterances with Context-Specific Domain Agents”; 8,140,327, entitled “System and Method for Filtering and Eliminating Noise from Natural Language Utterances to Improve Speech Recognition and Parsing”; 8,195,468 and 9,495,957, each entitled “Mobile Systems and Methods of Supporting Natural Language Human-Machine Interactions”; and 9,263,039, entitled “Systems and Methods for Responding to Natural Language Speech Utterance.” The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of damages, enhanced damages, attorneys’ fees, costs, interest, and injunctive relief. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter.

In addition, we are regularly subject to claims, litigation, and other proceedings, including potential regulatory proceedings, involving patent and other intellectual property matters, taxes, labor and employment, competition and antitrust, privacy and data protection, consumer protection, commercial disputes, goods and services offered by us and by third parties, and other matters.

The outcomes of our legal proceedings and other contingencies are inherently unpredictable, subject to significant uncertainties, and could be material to our operating results and cash flows for a particular period. We evaluate, on a regular basis, developments in our legal proceedings and other contingencies that could affect the amount of liability, including amounts in excess of any previous accruals and reasonably possible losses disclosed, and make adjustments and changes to our accruals and disclosures as appropriate. For the matters we disclose that do not include an estimate of the amount of loss or range of losses, such an estimate is not possible or is immaterial, and we may be unable to estimate the possible loss or range of losses that could potentially result from the application of non-monetary remedies. Until the final resolution of such matters, if any of our estimates and assumptions change or prove to have been incorrect, we may experience losses in excess of the amounts recorded, which could have a material effect on our business, consolidated financial position, results of operations, or cash flows.