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Commitments and Contingencies | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2024
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] |
Commitments and Contingencies | 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 September 30, 2024 (in millions):
| Three Months Ended December 31, |  | Year Ended December 31, |  |  |  |
| 2024 |  | 2025 |  | 2026 |  | 2027 |  | 2028 |  | Thereafter |  | Total
Long-term debt principal and interest | $ | 3,268 |  |  | $ | 6,858 |  |  | $ | 4,458 |  |  | $ | 10,403 |  |  | $ | 3,644 |  |  | $ | 60,176 |  |  | $ | 88,807 |
Operating lease liabilities | 3,758 |  |  | 11,434 |  |  | 10,686 |  |  | 9,755 |  |  | 8,874 |  |  | 51,102 |  |  | 95,609 |
Finance lease liabilities, including interest | 456 |  |  | 1,545 |  |  | 1,428 |  |  | 1,247 |  |  | 1,083 |  |  | 7,035 |  |  | 12,794 |
Financing obligations, including interest (1) | 95 |  |  | 526 |  |  | 534 |  |  | 543 |  |  | 551 |  |  | 7,247 |  |  | 9,496 |
Leases not yet commenced | 621 |  |  | 2,919 |  |  | 3,262 |  |  | 3,779 |  |  | 3,627 |  |  | 36,127 |  |  | 50,335 |
Unconditional purchase obligations (2) | 2,782 |  |  | 7,302 |  |  | 5,546 |  |  | 4,705 |  |  | 4,097 |  |  | 27,092 |  |  | 51,524 |
Other commitments (3) | 1,302 |  |  | 2,398 |  |  | 1,315 |  |  | 855 |  |  | 792 |  |  | 11,116 |  |  | 17,778 |
Total commitments | $ | 12,282 |  |  | $ | 32,982 |  |  | $ | 27,229 |  |  | $ | 31,287 |  |  | $ | 22,668 |  |  | $ | 199,895 |  |  | $ | 326,343 |
___________________ (1)Includes non-cancellable financing obligations for fulfillment network and data center facilities. Excluding interest, current financing obligations of $271 million and $313 million are recorded within “Accrued expenses and other” and $6.6 billion and $7.5 billion are recorded within “Other long-term liabilities” as of December 31, 2023 and September 30, 2024. The weighted-average remaining term of the financing obligations was 17.0 years and 16.4 years and the weighted-average imputed interest rate was 3.1% and 2.9% as of December 31, 2023 and September 30, 2024. (2)Includes unconditional purchase obligations related to long-term agreements to acquire and license digital media content, procure energy, and license software that are not reflected on the consolidated balance sheets. For those 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. Renewable energy agreements based on actual generation without a fixed or minimum volume commitment are not included. These agreements also provide the right to receive renewable energy certificates for no additional consideration. (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. Excludes approximately $6.3 billion of income tax contingencies for which we cannot make a reasonably reliable estimate of the amount and period of payment, if any. 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 include (i) the taxability of products and services, including cross-border intercompany transactions, (ii) collection and withholding on transactions with third parties, including as a result of evolving requirements imposed on marketplaces with respect to third-party sellers, 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 2023 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 Reports on Form 10-Q for the periods ended March 31, 2024 and June 30, 2024, 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 alleged, among other things, that Amazon S3 and DynamoDB infringe U.S. Patent Nos. 7,814,170 and 7,103,640, each 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 sought an unspecified amount of damages, enhanced damages, attorneys’ fees, costs, interest, and injunctive relief. In April 2024, a jury found that Amazon infringed the asserted patents and awarded Kove $525 million in damages. In August 2024, the court awarded Kove $148 million in pre-judgment interest. In September 2024, we filed a notice of appeal. We disagree with the jury’s findings and will continue to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter. Beginning in March 2020 with Frame-Wilson v. Amazon.com, Inc. filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington (“W.D. Wash.”), private litigants have filed a number of cases in the U.S. and Canada alleging, among other things, price fixing arrangements between Amazon.com, Inc. and vendors and third-party sellers in Amazon’s stores, monopolization and attempted monopolization, and consumer protection and unjust enrichment claims. Attorneys General for the District of Columbia and California brought similar suits in May 2021 and September 2022 in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and the California Superior Court for the County of San Francisco, respectively. Some of the private cases include allegations of several distinct purported classes, including consumers who purchased a product through Amazon’s stores and consumers who purchased a product offered by Amazon through another e-commerce retailer. The complaints seek billions of dollars of alleged damages, treble damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief, civil penalties, attorneys’ fees, and costs. The Federal Trade Commission and a number of state Attorneys General filed a similar lawsuit in September 2023 in the W.D. Wash. alleging violations of federal antitrust and state antitrust and consumer protection laws. That complaint alleges, among other things, that Amazon has a monopoly in markets for online superstores and marketplace services, and unlawfully maintains those monopolies through anticompetitive practices relating to our pricing policies, advertising practices, the structure of Prime, and promotion of our own products on our website. The complaint seeks injunctive and structural relief, an unspecified amount of damages, and costs. In May 2024, the Attorney General of Arizona filed a complaint in the Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County alleging that Amazon’s practices related to pricing and the Featured Offers in its stores violate state antitrust and consumer protection laws. That complaint also seeks injunctive relief, an unspecified amount of damages, civil penalties, and costs. Amazon’s motions to dismiss were granted in part and denied in part in Frame-Wilson in March 2022 and March 2023, De Coster v. Amazon.com, Inc. (W.D. Wash.) in January 2023, and the California Attorney General’s lawsuit in March 2023. All three courts dismissed claims alleging that Amazon’s pricing policies are inherently illegal and denied dismissal of claims alleging that Amazon’s pricing policies are an unlawful restraint of trade. In August 2024, the DC Court of Appeals overturned a prior decision by the DC Superior Court dismissing the DC Attorney General’s lawsuit and that case is now proceeding. In September 2024, the United States District Court for the W.D. Wash. granted in part Amazon’s motion to dismiss the suit brought by the FTC and certain state Attorneys General with respect to five state law claims and denied the motion with respect to the remaining claims. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in these matters. In October 2020, Broadband iTV, Inc. filed a complaint against Amazon.com, Inc., Amazon.com Services LLC, and Amazon Web Services, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. The complaint alleges, among other things, that certain Amazon Prime Video features and services infringe U.S. Patent Nos. 9,648,388, 10,546,750, and 10,536,751, each entitled “Video-On-Demand Content Delivery System for Providing Video-On-Demand Services to TV Services Subscribers”; 10,028,026, entitled “System for Addressing On-Demand TV Program Content on TV Services Platform of a Digital TV Services Provider”; and 9,973,825, entitled “Dynamic Adjustment of Electronic Program Guide Displays Based on Viewer Preferences for Minimizing Navigation in VOD Program Selection.” The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of damages. In April 2022, Broadband iTV alleged in its damages report that in the event of a finding of liability Amazon could be subject to $166 million to $986 million in damages. In September 2022, the district court granted summary judgment, holding that the patents are invalid. In October 2022, Broadband iTV filed a notice of appeal. In September 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment. This decision is subject to appeal. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and will continue 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. In November 2023, the court granted in part Amazon’s motion to dismiss Dialect’s complaint and dismissed the ‘845 patent from the case. In July and August 2024, the court granted in part Amazon’s motions for summary judgment, holding that Amazon does not infringe the ‘327 patent or two claims of the ‘006 patent and that Dialect cannot recover certain alleged damages. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter. Beginning in October 2023, Nokia Technologies Oy and related entities filed complaints alleging infringement of patents related to video-related technologies against Amazon.com, Inc. and related entities in multiple courts in the United States, India, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Brazil, the Unified Patent Court of the European Union, and the United States International Trade Commission. The complaints allege, among other things, that certain Amazon Prime Video services and features of Amazon devices carrying the Prime Video app infringe Nokia’s patents; some of the complaints additionally allege infringement by Freevee, Twitch, and Amazon voice assistants. The complaints seek, among other things, injunctive relief and, in some cases, unspecified money damages, enhanced damages, attorneys’ fees, costs, interest, and declaratory relief. These matters are at various procedural stages, with preliminary and final injunctions issued in certain instances. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in these matters. 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. See also “Note 7 — Income Taxes.”

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