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Commitments and Contingencies
 12 Months Ended
Jan. 31, 2024
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
Commitments and Contingencies Commitments and Contingencies
Non-cancelable Purchase Obligations
In the normal course of business, we enter into non-cancelable purchase commitments with various parties to purchase primarily software-based services. As of January 31, 2024, we had outstanding non-cancelable purchase obligations with a term of less than 12 months of $247.4 million and non-cancelable purchase obligations with a term 12 months or longer of $368.4 million.
Indemnifications and Contingency
Our agreements with certain larger customers include certain provisions for indemnifying customers against liabilities if our services infringe a third party’s intellectual property rights. It is not possible to determine the maximum potential amount under these indemnification obligations due to the limited history of prior indemnification claims and the unique facts and circumstances that may be involved in each particular agreement. To date, we have not incurred any material costs as a result of such provisions and have not accrued any liabilities related to such obligations in our consolidated financial statements.
In addition, we have indemnification agreements with our directors and our executive officers that require us, among other things, to indemnify our directors and executive officers for costs associated with any fees, expenses, judgments, fines, and settlement amounts incurred by any of those persons in any action or proceeding to which any of those persons is, or is threatened to be, made a party by reason of the person’s service as a director or officer, including any action by us, arising out of that person’s services as our director or officer or that person’s services provided to any other company or enterprise at our request. We maintain director and officer insurance coverage that may enable us to recover a portion of any future indemnification amounts paid. To date, there have been no claims under any of our directors’ and executive officers’ indemnification provisions.
Sales and Other Tax Liabilities
We conduct operations in many tax jurisdictions. In many jurisdictions, non-income-based taxes, such as sales and use tax and other indirect taxes, are assessed on our operations. Although we are diligent in collecting and remitting such taxes, there is uncertainty as to what constitutes sufficient presence for a jurisdiction to levy taxes, fees, and surcharges for sales made over the Internet. As of January 31, 2024 and 2023, we recorded sales and other tax liabilities of $77.7 million and $76.2 million, respectively, of which $35.5 million and $33.9 million are included in accrued expenses and other current liabilities, respectively, and $42.3 million and $42.3 million are included in other liabilities, noncurrent, respectively, in our consolidated balance sheets, based on our best estimate of the probable liability for the loss contingency incurred as of those dates. Our estimate of a probable outcome under the loss contingency is based on analysis of our sales and marketing activities, revenue subject to sales tax, and applicable regulations in applicable jurisdictions in each period. No significant adjustments to the sales and other tax liabilities have been recognized in the accompanying consolidated financial statements for changes to the assumptions underlying the estimate; however, changes in our assumptions may occur in the future as we obtain new information, which can result in adjustments to the recorded liability.
Other Contingencies
In June 2020, we received a grand jury subpoena from the Department of Justice’s U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern District of New York (“EDNY”), which requested information regarding our interactions with foreign governments and foreign political parties, including the Chinese government, as well as information regarding storage of and access to user data, the development and implementation of Zoom’s privacy policies, and the actions we took responding to law enforcement requests from the Chinese government. In July 2020, we received subpoenas from the Department of Justice’s U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California (“NDCA”) and the SEC. Both subpoenas seek documents and information relating to various security, data protection and privacy matters, including our encryption, and our statements relating thereto, as well as calculation of usage metrics and related public statements. In addition, the NDCA subpoena seeks information relating to any contacts between our employees and representatives of the Chinese government, and any attempted or successful influence by any foreign government in our policies, procedures, practices, and actions as they relate to users in the United States. We have since received additional subpoenas from EDNY and NDCA seeking related information. We are fully cooperating with all of these investigations and have been conducting our own thorough internal investigation. These investigations are ongoing, and we do not know when they will be completed, which facts we will ultimately discover as a result of the investigations, or what actions the government may or may not take. We cannot predict the outcome of these investigations, and a negative outcome in any or all of these matters could cause us to incur substantial fines, penalties, or other financial exposure, as well as reputational harm.
Legal Proceedings
On June 11, 2020 and July 30, 2020, purported shareholder derivative complaints were filed in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. The first complaint names as defendants nine of our officers and directors, and the second complaint names eight of our officers and directors. The lawsuits assert state and federal claims and are based on the same alleged misstatements as the shareholder class action complaint. The lawsuits accuse our board of directors of failing to exercise reasonable and prudent supervision over our management, policies, practices, and internal controls. The plaintiffs seek unspecified monetary damages on behalf of us as well as governance reforms. On September 25, 2020, the derivative cases were consolidated. On October 27, 2021, a third substantially identical lawsuit was filed in the same court against the same defendants, seeking unspecified monetary damages and governance reforms. On November 17, 2021, all three derivative lawsuits were consolidated. The consolidated case was stayed pending resolution of the motion to dismiss the securities class action. On April 11, 2023, the court entered a stipulated order that requires defendants to answer, move, or otherwise respond to the operative complaint by June 12, 2023. On June 12, 2023, defendants filed a motion to dismiss the consolidated case. On August 11, 2023, the plaintiff in the consolidated case filed an amended complaint. On October 18, 2023, defendants filed their motion to dismiss the amended complaint. On December 22, 2023, plaintiff filed her opposition to the motion to dismiss, and on January 26, 2024, defendants filed their reply in support of the motion to dismiss.
We are vigorously defending ourselves against these lawsuits. Given the uncertainty of litigation, the preliminary stage of the cases, and the legal standards that must be met for, among other things, class certification and success on the merits, we cannot estimate the reasonably possible loss or range of loss that may result from these actions.
Beginning on March 30, 2020, multiple putative class actions were filed against us in various U.S. federal district courts and state courts relating to our alleged privacy and security practices, including alleged data sharing with third parties (the “U.S. Privacy Class Actions”). The plaintiffs claim violations of a variety of state consumer protection and privacy laws, and also assert state constitutional and common law claims, such as negligence and unjust enrichment. The U.S. Privacy Class Actions seek to certify both nationwide and state-specific classes of individuals using our services in certain time periods. The plaintiffs seek various forms of injunctive and monetary relief, including restitution, statutory and actual damages, punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees. The federal cases have been transferred to and consolidated in the NDCA with our consent; lead plaintiffs’ counsel have been appointed; and plaintiffs filed their first amended consolidated class action complaint on October 28, 2020. On March 11, 2021, the court granted in part, and denied in part, our motion to dismiss, and gave plaintiffs leave to amend. On July 30, 2021, we entered into a settlement agreement with plaintiffs to settle the action on a classwide basis, and plaintiffs filed a motion for preliminary approval of the settlement with the court on July 31, 2021. On October 21, 2021, the Court preliminarily approved the settlement. Under the terms of the settlement, we have paid $85.0 million into an escrow account that will be used to pay claims filed by settlement class members, attorneys’ fees and expenses, administrative costs, and service payments to plaintiffs. On April 21, 2022, the Court granted final approval of the settlement. On May 19, 2022, two objectors to the settlement appealed the Court's final approval order. On May 20, 2022, a third objector appealed the Court’s final approval order. On October 17, 2022, we, plaintiffs, and all three objector-appellants agreed to settle the appeals, and on October 27, 2022, we and plaintiffs initiated proceedings in the district court to obtain Court approval of the settlements, which the district court approved on December 16, 2022. On January 13, 2023, a new objector appealed the court’s December 16, 2022 approval of the settlements of the prior appeals, and on March 31, 2023, the Ninth Circuit dismissed the new appeal. With the appeals resolved, the class action settlement is final and the settlement administrator is in the process of making payments to claimants.
On April 7, 2020 and April 8, 2020, securities class action complaints were filed against us and two of our officers in the United States District Court for the NDCA. The plaintiffs are purported stockholders of ours. The complaints allege, among other things, that we violated Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Exchange Act, and Rule 10b-5 by making false and misleading statements and omissions of material fact about our data privacy and security measures. The complaints seek unspecified damages, interest, fees, and costs. On May 18, 2020, the actions were consolidated. On November 4, 2020, the court appointed a lead plaintiff. On December 23, 2020, the lead plaintiff filed a consolidated complaint. We filed a motion to dismiss the consolidated complaint on May 20, 2021. Plaintiff filed an opposition to our motion to dismiss on July 9, 2021. Our reply in support of the motion to dismiss was filed on August 9, 2021. On February 16, 2022, the court granted in part, and denied in part, our motion to dismiss. On March 14, 2022, we moved for reconsideration of the court’s ruling on the motion to dismiss. On March 22, 2022, the court ordered plaintiff to respond to our motion, which plaintiff did on March 29, 2022. On April 22, 2022, we answered the complaint. On March 8, 2023, the court denied our motion for reconsideration. On April 6, 2023, the court entered a scheduling order. On July 17, 2023, the parties entered into a stipulation and agreement of settlement (the “Stipulation”) to resolve this matter. Under the terms of the stipulation, in exchange for the release and dismissal with prejudice of all claims against all defendants in the matter, we have agreed to pay and/or cause our insurance carriers to pay a total of $150.0 million. The Stipulation and settlement remain subject to preliminary and final approval by the court. On July 25, 2023, the court entered an order staying further proceedings in the matter pending the filing of a motion for preliminary approval of the settlement. On October 17, 2023, lead plaintiff filed a motion for preliminary approval of the settlement. A hearing on the motion for preliminary approval of the settlement is not currently scheduled. As a result of the settlement, we made net
payments of $60.0 million ($150.0 million for the settlement net of $90.0 million covered by insurance) during the year ended January 31, 2024, of which $7.5 million had been accrued during the year ended January 31, 2023 and $52.5 million was recorded as a general and administrative expense in our consolidated statement of operations for the year ended January 31, 2024.
In addition, from time to time, we are involved in various other legal proceedings arising from the normal course of business activities. We are not presently a party to any other such litigation the outcome of which, we believe, if determined adversely to us, would individually, or taken together, have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, cash flows, or financial condition. Defending such proceedings is costly and can impose a significant burden on management and employees. We may receive unfavorable preliminary or interim rulings in the course of litigation, and there can be no assurances that favorable final outcomes will be obtained.