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Litigation and Contingencies | 3 Months Ended
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Mar. 31, 2025
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] |
Litigation and Contingencies | Litigation and Contingencies The Company is subject to various claims and lawsuits in the ordinary course of business, including from time to time, contractual disputes, employment and environmental matters, product and general liability claims, claims that the Company has infringed on the intellectual property rights of others, and consumer and employment class actions. Some of the legal proceedings include claims for punitive as well as compensatory damages. In the ordinary course of business, the Company is also subject to legislative requests, regulatory and governmental examinations, information requests and subpoenas, inquiries, investigations, and threatened legal actions and proceedings. In connection with such formal and informal inquiries, the Company receives numerous requests, subpoenas, and orders for documents, testimony and information in connection with various aspects of its activities. Environmental Matters The Company is involved in various matters concerning federal and state environmental laws and regulations, including matters in which the Company has been identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“U.S. EPA”) and certain state environmental agencies as a potentially responsible party (“PRP”) at contaminated sites under the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (“CERCLA”) and equivalent state laws. In assessing its environmental response costs, the Company has considered several factors, including the extent of the Company’s volumetric contribution at each site relative to that of other PRPs; the kind of waste; the terms of existing cost sharing and other applicable agreements; the financial ability of other PRPs to share in the payment of requisite costs; the Company’s prior experience with similar sites; environmental studies and cost estimates available to the Company; the effects of inflation on cost estimates; and the extent to which the Company’s and other parties’ status as PRPs is disputed. The Company’s estimate of environmental remediation costs associated with these matters at March 31, 2025 was $38 million which is included in other accrued liabilities and other noncurrent liabilities in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets. No insurance recovery was taken into account in determining the Company’s cost estimates or reserves, nor do the Company’s cost estimates or reserves reflect any discounting for present value purposes, except with respect to certain long-term operations and maintenance CERCLA matters. Because of the uncertainties associated with environmental investigations and response activities, the possibility that the Company could be identified as a PRP at sites identified in the future that require the incurrence of environmental response costs and the possibility that sites acquired in business combinations may require environmental response costs, actual costs to be incurred by the Company may vary from the Company’s estimates. Lower Passaic River Matter Over 100 entities, including the Company and its subsidiary, Berol Corporation (together, the “Company Parties”), have been identified as PRPs at the Diamond Alkali Superfund Site (the “Site”) pursuant to CERCLA. The Site is divided into four “operable units,” and the Company Parties have received notice letters in connection with operable Unit 4 and operable Unit 2 (which is geographically subsumed within Unit 4). The U.S. EPA has issued records of decision for Units 2 and 4 with selected remedies that are estimated to cost approximately $1.8 billion in the aggregate. In September 2017, the U.S. EPA announced an allocation process involving roughly 80 PRPs, with the intent of offering cash-out settlements to a number of parties. The allocation process has concluded, and the Company Parties were placed in the lowest tier of relative responsibility among allocation parties. On January 31, 2024, U.S. EPA filed a motion to enter a modified consent decree to resolve the liability of the Company Parties and other settlement parties for past and future CERCLA response costs at Unit 2 and Unit 4 (“Consent Decree”), which the court granted on December 18, 2024. The Court’s order entering the Consent Decree has been appealed. As of the date of this filing, the Company does not expect that its share of payments toward the Consent Decree, if the Consent Decree is upheld following any appellate review, will be material to the Company. In June 2018, Occidental Chemical Corporation (“OCC”) sued over 100 parties, including the Company Parties, in the U.S. District Court in New Jersey pursuant to CERCLA, requesting cost recovery, including past and future costs for investigation, design and remediation of Units 2 and 4, as well as contribution and a declaratory judgement (the “OCC Litigation”). The defendants, in turn, filed claims against 42 third-party defendants and counterclaims against OCC. OCC has also stated that it anticipates asserting claims against defendants regarding Newark Bay, which is also part of the Site, after the U.S. EPA has selected the Newark Bay remedy. The OCC Litigation is stayed pending the Court’s adjudication of the entry of the Consent Decree. At this time, the Company cannot predict the eventual outcome of the OCC Litigation. In addition, federal trustees, including the U.S. Department of Commerce and Department of the Interior, continue to undertake a Natural Resource Damage Assessment with respect to the Site, having previously identified the Company Parties, along with numerous other entities, as PRPs. Based on currently known facts and circumstances, the Company does not believe that the Lower Passaic River matter is reasonably likely to have a material impact on the Company’s results of operations. However, in the event of one or more adverse determinations related to this matter, including the OCC Litigation and Natural Resource Damage Assessment noted above (for which the Company cannot currently estimate the range of possible losses), it is possible that the ultimate liability resulting from this matter and the impact on the Company’s results of operations could be material. Because of the uncertainties associated with environmental investigations and response activities, the possibility that the Company could be identified as a PRP at sites identified in the future that require the incurrence of environmental response costs and the possibility that sites acquired in business combinations may require environmental response costs, actual costs to be incurred by the Company may vary from the Company’s estimates. Other Matters In the normal course of business and as part of its acquisition and divestiture strategy, the Company may provide certain representations and indemnifications related to legal, environmental, product liability, tax or other types of issues. Based on the nature of these representations and indemnifications, it is not possible to predict the maximum potential payments under all of these agreements due to the conditional nature of the Company’s obligations and the unique facts and circumstances involved in each particular agreement. Historically, payments made by the Company under these agreements did not have a material effect on the Company’s business, financial condition or results of operations. In connection with the Company’s sale of The United States Playing Card Company (“USPC”), Cartamundi, Inc. and Cartamundi España, S.L., (the “Buyers”) have notified the Company of their contention that certain representations and warranties in the Stock Purchase Agreement, dated June 4, 2019, were inaccurate and/or breached, and have sought indemnification to the extent that the Buyers are required to pay related damages arising out of a third party lawsuit that was filed against USPC in 2021. Although the Company cannot predict the ultimate outcome of other proceedings with certainty, it believes that the ultimate resolution of the Company’s proceedings, including any amounts it may be required to pay in excess of amounts reserved, will not have a material effect on the Company’s Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements, except as otherwise described in this Footnote 14. At March 31, 2025, the Company had approximately $48 million in standby letters of credit primarily related to the Company’s self-insurance programs, including workers’ compensation, product liability and medical expenses.

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