CONTINGENCIES AND COMMITMENTS

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2023

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]


10.			CONTINGENCIES AND COMMITMENTS

Commitments and Letters of Credit

As of September 30, 2023, we had the following commitments outstanding:

•We have various contracts for the use of information technology hardware and software that we use in the normal course of business. Our aggregate commitment under these contracts was $107 million, of which we expect $17 million, $42 million, $24 million, $14 million, $6 million and $4 million will be paid in the remainder of 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, and thereafter, respectively.

•We have a commitment to acquire real estate for use in our Vacation Ownership segment via our involvement with a VIE. Refer to Footnote 15 “Variable Interest Entities” for additional information and our activities relating to the VIE involved in this transaction.

Surety bonds issued as of September 30, 2023 totaled $121 million, the majority of which were requested by federal, state, or local governments in connection with our operations.

As of September 30, 2023, we had $1 million of letters of credit outstanding under our Revolving Corporate Credit Facility (as defined in Footnote 12 “Debt”). In addition, as of September 30, 2023, we had $1 million in letters of credit outstanding related to and in lieu of reserves required for several vacation ownership notes receivable securitization transactions outstanding. These letters of credit are not issued pursuant to, nor do they impact our borrowing capacity under, the Revolving Corporate Credit Facility.

Guarantees

Certain of our rental management agreements in our Exchange & Third-Party Management segment provide for owners of properties we manage to receive specified percentages of rental revenue or guaranteed amounts generated under our management. In these cases, the operating expenses for the rental operations are paid from the revenue generated by the rentals, the owners are then paid their contractual percentages or guaranteed amounts, and we either retain the balance of the rental revenue (if any) as our fee or we make up the deficit if the owners have not received their guaranteed amounts. At September 30, 2023, our maximum exposure under fixed dollar guarantees was $5 million, of which $2 million, $1 million, $1 million, and $1 million relate to 2024, 2025, 2026, and 2027 and thereafter, respectively.

We have a commitment to an owners’ association that we manage to pay for any shortfall between the actual expenses incurred by the owners’ association and the income received by the owners’ association, in lieu of our payment of maintenance fees for unsold inventory. The agreement will terminate on the earlier of: 1) sale of 95% of the total ownership interests in the owners’ association; or 2) written notification of termination by either party. At September 30, 2023, our expected commitment for the remainder of 2023 is $3 million.

Loss Contingencies

In February 2019, the owners’ association for the St. Regis Residence Club, New York filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court for the State of New York, New York County, Commercial Division against ILG and several of its subsidiaries and certain third parties. The operative complaint alleges that the defendants breached their fiduciary duties related to sale and rental practices, aided and abetted certain breaches of fiduciary duty, engaged in self-dealing as the sponsor and manager of the club, tortiously interfered with the management agreement, were unjustly enriched, and engaged in anticompetitive conduct. The plaintiff is seeking unspecified damages, punitive damages and disgorgement of payments under the management and purchase agreements. In February 2022, the Court granted our motion to dismiss the complaint and dismissed with prejudice all claims except one (such claim, the “Remaining Claim”), with respect to which the plaintiff was granted leave to amend its complaint. The plaintiff filed an amended complaint with respect to the Remaining Claim and appealed the dismissal of the other claims. In June 2023, the appellate court upheld the dismissal of those claims. Plaintiff filed a motion for reconsideration of that appellate ruling, and in October 2023, the appellate court denied that motion. In November 2022, the Court granted our motion to dismiss the amended complaint with respect to the Remaining Claim and again granted plaintiff leave to amend its complaint. The plaintiff filed an amended complaint with respect to the Remaining Claim and again appealed the dismissal of the other claims. That appeal remains pending. In September 2023, the Court granted our motion to dismiss the amended complaint with respect to the Remaining Claim and denied plaintiff permission to file any additional amended complaints. We believe we have meritorious defenses to the claims in this matter and intend to vigorously defend against them.

In the ordinary course of our business, various claims and lawsuits have been filed or are pending against us. A number of these lawsuits and claims may exist at any given time. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic may give rise to various claims and lawsuits from owners, members and other parties. We record and accrue for legal contingencies when we determine that it is probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated. In making such determinations, we evaluate, among other things, the degree of probability of an unfavorable outcome and, when it is probable that a liability has been incurred, our ability to make a reasonable estimate of loss. We review these accruals each reporting period and make revisions based on changes in facts and circumstances.

We have not accrued for the pending matter described above and we cannot estimate a range of the potential liability associated with this pending matter, if any, at this time. We have accrued for other claims and lawsuits, but the amount accrued is not material individually or in the aggregate. For matters not requiring accrual, we do not believe that the ultimate outcome of such matters, individually or in the aggregate, will materially harm our financial position, cash flows, or overall trends in results of operations based on information currently available. However, legal proceedings are inherently uncertain, and while we believe that our accruals, where required, are adequate and/or we have valid defenses to the claims asserted, unfavorable rulings could occur that could, individually or in the aggregate, have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or operating results.