Burger King 2011 Annual Report Download - page 25

Table of Contents
relationship, including terminations and the refusal to renew franchises. The failure to comply with these laws and regulations in any jurisdiction or to obtain
required government approvals could result in a ban or temporary suspension on future franchise sales, fines, other penalties or require us to make offers of
rescission or restitution, any of which could adversely affect our business and operating results. We could also face lawsuits by our franchisees based upon
alleged violations of these laws.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in public accommodations and employment. We have, in
the past, been required to make certain modifications to our restaurants pursuant to the ADA. In addition, future mandated modifications to our facilities to make
different accommodations for disabled persons and modifications required under the ADA could result in material unanticipated expense to us and our
franchisees.
If we fail to comply with existing or future laws and regulations, we may be subject to governmental or judicial fines or sanctions. In addition, our and our
franchisees’ capital expenditures could increase due to remediation measures that may be required if we are found to be noncompliant with any of these laws or
regulations.
The personal information that we collect may be vulnerable to breach, theft or loss that could adversely affect our reputation, results of operation and
financial condition.
In the ordinary course of our business, we collect, process, transmit and retain personal information regarding our employees and their families,
franchisees, vendors and consumers, including social security numbers, banking and tax ID information, health care information and credit card information.
Some of this personal information is held and managed by certain of our vendors. Although we use security and business controls to limit access and use of
personal information, a third party may be able to circumvent those security and business controls, which could result in a breach of employee, consumer or
franchisee privacy. A major breach, theft or loss of personal information regarding our employees and their families, our franchisees, vendors or consumers that
is held by us or our vendors could result in substantial fines, penalties and potential litigation against us which could negatively impact our results of operations
and financial condition. Furthermore, as a result of legislative and regulatory rules, we may be required to notify the owners of the personal information of any
data breaches, which could harm our reputation and financial results, as well as subject us to litigation or actions by regulatory authorities.
Information technology system failures or interruptions or breaches of our network security may interrupt our operations, subject us to increased
operating costs and expose us to litigation.
We rely heavily on our computer systems and network infrastructure across our operations including, but not limited to, point-of-sale processing at our
restaurants. Despite our implementation of security measures, all of our technology systems are vulnerable to damage, disability or failures due to physical theft,
fire, power loss, telecommunications failure or other catastrophic events, as well as from internal and external security breaches, denial of service attacks,
viruses, worms and other disruptive problems caused by hackers. If our technology systems were to fail, and we were unable to recover in a timely way, we could
experience an interruption in our operations which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. Furthermore, to the
extent that some of our worldwide reporting systems require or rely on manual processes, it could increase the risk of a breach.
In addition, a number of our systems and processes are not fully integrated worldwide and, as a result, require us to manually estimate and consolidate
certain information that we use to manage our business. To the extent that we are not able to obtain transparency into our operations from our systems, it could
impair the ability of our management to react quickly to changes in the business or economic environment.
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Source: Burger King Holdings Inc, 10-K, March 14, 2012 Powered by Morningstar® Document Research℠