American Home Shield 2011 Annual Report Download - page 21

Table of Contents
pesticides generally must be registered with the EPA and similar state agencies before they can be sold or applied. The failure to obtain or the cancellation of
any such registration, or the withdrawal from the market place of such pesticides, could have an adverse effect on our business, the severity of which would
depend on the products involved, whether other products could be substituted and whether our competitors were similarly affected. The pesticides we use are
manufactured by independent third parties and are evaluated by the EPA as part of its ongoing exposure risk assessment. The EPA may decide that a pesticide
we use will be limited or will not be re-registered for use in the United States. We cannot predict the outcome or the severity of the effect of the EPA's
continuing evaluations.
In addition, the use of certain pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer products is regulated by various international, federal, state, provincial and local
environmental and public health agencies. These regulations may require that only certified or professional users apply the product or that certain products
only be used on certain types of locations. These laws may also require users to post notices on properties at which products have been or will be applied, may
require notification to individuals in the vicinity that products will be applied in the future or may restrict or ban the use of certain products. Although we
strive to comply with such regulations and have processes in place designed to achieve compliance, given our dispersed locations, distributed operations and
numerous employees, we can give no assurance that we can prevent violations of these or other regulations from occurring. Even if we are able to comply
with all such regulations and obtain all necessary registrations and licenses, we cannot assure you that the pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers or other products
we apply, or the manner in which we apply them, will not be alleged to cause injury to the environment, to people or to animals, or that such products will not
be banned in certain circumstances. The costs of compliance, non-compliance, remediation, combating unfavorable public perceptions or defending products
liability lawsuits could have a material adverse impact on our reputation, business, financial position, results of operations and cash flows.
International, federal, state, provincial and local agencies regulate the disposal, handling and storage of waste, discharges from our facilities and the
investigation and clean-up of contaminated sites. We could incur significant costs, including investigation and clean-up costs, fines, penalties and civil or
criminal sanctions and claims by third parties for property damage and personal injury, as a result of violations of, or liabilities under, these laws and
regulations. If there is a significant change in the facts or circumstances surrounding the assumptions upon which we operate, or if we are found to violate
applicable environmental and public health laws and regulations, it could have a material adverse impact on future environmental capital expenditures and
other environmental expenses and on our reputation, financial position, results of operations and cash flows. In addition, potentially significant expenditures
could be required to comply with environmental laws and regulations, including requirements that may be adopted or imposed in the future.
International, federal, state, provincial and local agencies that regulate environmental matters may change environmental laws, regulations or standards,
including imposing new regulations with respect to climate change matters. Changes in any of these or other laws, regulations or standards could materially
adversely impact our business, financial position, results of operations and cash flows.
If we fail to protect the security of personal information about our customers, we could be subject to interruption of our business operations, private
litigation, reputational damage and costly penalties.
We rely on, among other things, commercially available systems, software, tools and monitoring to provide security for processing, transmission and
storage of confidential customer information, such as payment card and personal information. The systems currently used for transmission and approval of
payment card transactions, and the technology utilized in payment
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