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Guarantees, Commitments, and Contingencies | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2018
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] |
Guarantees, Commitments, and Contingencies | Guarantees, Commitments, and Contingencies We continue to monitor the conditions that are subject to guarantees and indemnifications to identify whether a liability must be recognized in our financial statements. Guarantees and Other Commitments The following table provides the estimated undiscounted amount of potential future payments for each major group of guarantees at September 30, 2018. These guarantees arise during the ordinary course of business from relationships with customers and nonconsolidated affiliates. Non-performance by the guaranteed party triggers the obligation requiring us to make payments to the beneficiary of the guarantee. Based on our experience these types of guarantees have not had a material effect on our consolidated financial position or on our liquidity. Our expectation is that future payment or performance related to the non-performance of others is considered unlikely.
(in Millions) |
Guarantees: |
Guarantees of vendor financing - short-term (1) | $ | 37.0 |
Guarantees of vendor financing - long-term (1) | 0.1 |
Other debt guarantees (2) | 4.2 |
Total | $ | 41.3 |
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(1) | Represents guarantees to financial institutions on behalf of certain FMC Agricultural Solutions customers for their seasonal borrowing. This short-term amount is recorded within “Guarantees of vendor financing” on the condensed consolidated balance sheets.
(2) | These guarantees represent support provided to third-party banks for credit extended to various FMC Agricultural Solutions customers and nonconsolidated affiliates. The liability for the guarantees is recorded at an amount that approximates fair value (i.e. representing the stand-ready obligation) based on our historical collection experience and a current assessment of credit exposure. We believe the fair value of these guarantees is immaterial. The majority of these guarantees have an expiration date of less than one year.
Excluded from the chart above are parent-company guarantees we provide to lending institutions that extend credit to our foreign subsidiaries. Since these guarantees are provided for consolidated subsidiaries, the consolidated financial position is not affected by the issuance of these guarantees. Also excluded from the chart, in connection with our property and asset sales and divestitures, we have agreed to indemnify the buyer for certain liabilities, including environmental contamination and taxes that occurred prior to the date of sale or provided guarantees to third parties relating to certain contracts assumed by the buyer. Our indemnification or guarantee obligations with respect to these liabilities may be indefinite as to duration and may or may not be subject to a deductible, minimum claim amount or cap. As such, it is not possible for us to predict the likelihood that a claim will be made or to make a reasonable estimate of the maximum potential loss or range of loss. If triggered, we may be able to recover some of the indemnity payments from third parties. We have not recorded any specific liabilities for these guarantees. Contingencies A detailed discussion related to our outstanding contingencies, other than as discussed below, can be found in Note 18 to our consolidated financial statements included within our 2017 Form 10-K. Canadian antitrust actions. In 2005, after public disclosures of the U.S. federal grand jury investigation into the hydrogen peroxide industry (which resulted in no charges brought against us) and the filing of various class actions in U.S. federal and state courts, which have all been settled, putative class actions against us and five other major hydrogen peroxide producers were filed in provincial courts in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia under the laws of Canada. The other five defendants have settled these claims for a total of approximately $20.6 million. On September 28, 2009, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice certified a class of direct and indirect purchasers of hydrogen peroxide from 1994 to 2005. Our motion for leave to appeal the class certification decision was denied in June 2010. The case was largely dormant while the Canadian Supreme Court considered, in different litigation, whether indirect purchasers may recover overcharges in antitrust actions. In October 2013 the Court ruled that such recovery is permissible. Thereafter, the plaintiffs' moved to dismiss certain downstream purchasers (those who purchased products that contain hydrogen peroxide or were made using hydrogen peroxide) from the case and to reduce the class period to November 1, 1998 through December 31, 2003 - thereby eliminating six of the eleven years of the originally certified class period. The Court approved this request. Following an active period of discovery the plaintiffs approached FMC for settlement negotiations in July 2018. The plaintiffs and FMC subsequently reached agreement and signed a settlement agreement on September 27, 2018, providing for a payment of CAD 3.25 million ($2.5 million), which is recorded within "Accrued and other current liabilities" on the condensed consolidated balance sheets, to plaintiffs. This was recorded within "Discontinued operations, net of income taxes" on the condensed consolidated statements of income (loss). Subject to court approval, which is expected, the settlement agreement fully and finally resolved the Canadian litigation.

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