Investing in our Class A common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes, before making a decision to invest in our Class A common stock. Our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects could also be harmed by risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently do not believe are material. If any of the risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected. In that event, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment. For the purposes of this “Item 1A. Risk Factors” section, riders are passengers who request rides from drivers on our platform and renters of a shared bike or scooter.
Risk Factor Summary
Our business operations are subject to numerous risks, factors and uncertainties, including those outside of our control, that could cause our actual results to be harmed, including risks regarding the following:
Operational Factors
•uncertainty regarding the growth of ridesharing and other markets and the unpredictability of our results of operations;
•our financial performance and any inability to maintain profitability in the future;
•competition in our industries;
•our ability to attract and retain qualified drivers and riders;
•our insurance coverage, the adequacy of our insurance reserves, and the ability of third-party insurance providers to service our auto-related insurance claims;
•our reputation and brand;
•illegal or improper activity of users of our platform;
•the accuracy of background checks on potential or current drivers and our third-party providers’ ability to effectively conduct such background checks;
•changes to our pricing practices;
•the growth and development of our network of shared bikes and scooters and the quality of and supply chain for our network of shared bikes and scooters;
•our AV technology, partnerships with other companies who offer AV technologies, and the overall development of the AV industry;
•claims from riders, drivers or third parties;
•actual or perceived security or privacy breaches or incidents and resulting interruptions in our availability or the availability of other systems and providers;
•our reliance on third parties, such as Amazon Web Services, vehicle rental partners, payment processors and other service providers;
•our ability to operate our Express Drive program;
•our nascent advertising platform, Lyft Ads;
•our use of artificial intelligence and machine learning;
•the development of new offerings on our platform and management of the complexities of such expansion;
•inaccuracies in or changes to our key metrics and estimates;
•our ability to offer high-quality user support and to deal with fraud;
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•our ability to effectively manage the offerings on our multimodal platform;
•our ability to effectively manage our pricing methodologies;
•our company culture;
•our reliance on key personnel and our ability to attract and retain personnel;
•changes in the Internet, mobile device accessibility, mobile device operating systems and application marketplaces;
•the interoperability of our platform across third-party applications and services;
•defects, errors or vulnerabilities in our technology and that of third-party providers or system failures;
•factors relating to our intellectual property rights as well as the intellectual property rights of others;
•our presence outside the U.S. and any future international expansion;
•our Share Repurchase Programs, including our ability to realize anticipated long-term stockholder value;
General Economic Factors
•general macroeconomic conditions;
•natural disasters, public health crises or political crises;
Regulatory and Legal Factors
•changes in laws and the adoption and interpretation of administrative rules and regulations;
•the classification status of drivers on our platform;
•intellectual property litigation;
•compliance with laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection and the protection or transfer of personal data;
•litigation and other proceedings arising in the ordinary course of our business;
•our ability to maintain an effective system of disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting;
•changes in tax laws;
•assertions from taxing authorities that we should have collected or in the future should collect additional taxes;
•costs related to operating as a public company;
•climate change and related regulatory developments;
Financing and Transactional Risks
•our future capital requirements and our ability to service our current and future debt, financial covenants and other operational restrictions contained in our current debt agreements, and counterparty risk with respect to our capped call transactions;
•our ability to make and successfully integrate acquisitions and investments or complete divestitures, joint ventures, partnerships or other strategic transactions;
•our tax liabilities, ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and future changes in tax matters;
Governance Risks and Risks related to Ownership of our Capital Stock
•the volatility of the trading price of our Class A common stock;
•provisions of Delaware law and our certificate of incorporation and bylaws that may make a merger, tender offer or proxy contest difficult; and
•exclusive forum provisions in our bylaws.
Risks Related to Operational Factors
Our evolving business makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and the risks and challenges we may encounter.
Since our ridesharing marketplace launched in 2012, we have primarily focused on ridesharing, particularly in North America. However, our ridesharing business and our broader business and strategy continue to evolve. We regularly expand our
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platform features, offerings and services and change our pricing methodologies, and we have recently engaged in more significant expansion of our operations to new geographies and new offerings. In July 2025, we expanded our operations beyond North America, entering nine new countries and more than 180 cities through our acquisition of Freenow, a leading European multimodal app with taxi offering at its core. In October 2025, we acquired TBR, a global luxury chauffeuring company that operates in thousands of cities worldwide. Our evolving business, industry and markets, including the evolution of the ridesharing industry and markets, make it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and the risks and challenges we may encounter including our ability to:
•forecast our Gross Bookings, revenue and operating results and budget for and manage our expenses;
•attract new qualified drivers and new riders, and retain existing qualified drivers and existing riders in a cost-effective manner;
•effectively and competitively price our services and determine appropriate pricing methodologies, including in reaction to competitive pressures;
•successfully develop new platform features, offerings and services to enhance the experience of users;
•comply with existing and new or modified laws and regulations applicable to our business;
•manage our platform and our business assets and expenses in light of economic and other developments, including changes in rider behavior and demand for our services;
•plan for and manage capital expenditures for our current and future offerings, including our network of shared bikes and scooters and certain vehicles in the Express Drive program, and manage our supply chain and supplier relationships related to our current and future offerings;
•develop, manufacture, source, deploy, sell, maintain and ensure utilization of our assets, including our network of shared bikes and scooters and certain vehicles in the Express Drive program;
•anticipate and respond to macroeconomic changes and changes in market dynamics in the markets in which we operate;
•maintain and enhance the value of our reputation and brand;
•successfully expand our geographic reach and manage our international operations, including new business models and regulatory environments;
•hire, integrate and retain talented people at all levels of our organization; and
•effectively manage our real estate footprint.
If we fail to address the risks and difficulties that we face, including those associated with the challenges listed above as well as those described elsewhere in this “Risk Factors” section, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. Further, because we have an evolving business and financial model and operate in rapidly evolving markets, any predictions about our future Gross Bookings, revenue, expenses and earnings may not be as accurate as they would be if we had a static financial model or operated in a more predictable market. From time to time, we have also reevaluated and changed our cost structure and focused our business model, which may result in increased expenses in the near term or reductions in revenue. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which we use to plan and operate our business, are incorrect or change, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our results of operations could differ materially from our expectations and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected, which could, in turn, cause our stock price to decline.
Our financial performance in recent periods may not be indicative of future performance, and we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability in the future.
We achieved net income, on a GAAP basis, in the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2025, however, we incurred net losses every other year since our inception, and we may not be able to achieve or maintain GAAP profitability. We expect that our financial performance, including our net income and Adjusted EBITDA, will continue to fluctuate in future periods. We can provide no assurances that we will achieve or maintain profitability in the future, on a quarterly or annual basis.
While we remain focused on operating efficiently, our expenses may increase in the future as we develop and launch new offerings and platform features, expand in existing and new markets, including new geographies, and continue to invest in our platform and customer engagement. In addition, certain costs, such as insurance and driver pay and incentives have increased or fluctuated as a result of macroeconomic factors and the development and maturation of our business and the rideshare industry, and may continue to do so. We may be unable to accurately predict these costs and our investments may not result in increased revenue or growth in our business. For example, we have incurred and will continue to incur additional costs
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and expenses associated with the passage of Proposition 22 in California, HB 2076 in Washington, and elsewhere, and implementation of operational changes as part of agreements with the New York and Massachusetts Attorneys General, including providing drivers in these states with new earnings opportunities and protections, including contributions towards on-the-job injury insurance, other benefits and minimum guaranteed earnings. In addition, various jurisdictions have introduced legislation setting high earnings standards and increasing other costs to the business including insurance and industry-wide sectoral bargaining for rideshare drivers. Due to various factors, including inflation, we anticipate that our insurance costs will fluctuate or continue to increase, which will impact our profitability. Furthermore, we have expanded over time to include more asset-intensive offerings such as our network of shared bikes and scooters, our purchase and/or operation of AVs and related infrastructure, and Flexdrive. These offerings and programs require significant capital investments and recurring costs, including debt payments, maintenance, depreciation, asset life and asset replacement costs, and if we are not able to maintain sufficient levels of utilization of such assets, such offerings are otherwise not successful or we decide to shut down any such offerings, our investments may not generate sufficient returns and our financial condition may be adversely affected. In addition to the above, a determination in, resolution of, or settlement of, any legal proceeding related to driver classification matters may require us to significantly alter our existing business model and operations (including potentially suspending or ceasing operations in impacted jurisdictions), increase our costs and impact our ability to add qualified drivers to our platform and grow our business, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations, and our ability to achieve or maintain profitability in the future. Additionally, stock-based compensation expense related to restricted stock units (“RSUs”) and other equity awards is expected to continue to be a significant expense for the foreseeable future, and as of June 30, 2026, we had $196.6 million of unrecognized stock-based compensation expense related to all unvested awards, net of estimated forfeitures, that will be recognized over a weighted-average period of approximately eleven months. Any failure to increase our revenue sufficiently to keep pace with our investments and other expenses could prevent us from achieving or maintaining profitability or positive cash flow on a consistent basis. If we are unable to successfully address these risks and challenges as we encounter them, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
As our business evolves, our revenue growth rates and results of operations will fluctuate due to a number of reasons, which may include changes in the macroeconomic environment, slowing demand for our offerings, increasing competition or changes in market dynamics, a decrease in the growth of our overall market or market saturation, varying profitability of different offerings, increased expenses due to investments, public health crises, increasing regulatory costs and challenges and resulting changes to our business model and our failure to capitalize on growth opportunities. If we are unable to generate adequate revenue growth and manage our expenses, we may continue to incur significant losses in the future and may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability.
We face intense competition and could lose market share to our competitors, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The market for transportation as a service (“TaaS”) networks is intensely competitive and characterized by rapid changes in technology, shifting levels of supply and demand and frequent introductions of new services and offerings. We expect competition to continue, both from current competitors and new entrants in the market that may be well-established and enjoy greater resources or other strategic or technological advantages. If we are unable to anticipate or successfully react to competitive challenges in a timely manner, our competitive position could weaken, or fail to improve, and we could experience fluctuations or a decline in market share, a decline in Gross Bookings, revenue or growth stagnation that could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Our market share has fluctuated over time and we have had to take actions, such as price cuts, that have negative impacts on our financial results in the short term, either because of decreased revenue or increased investments, or both, that we believe will benefit our company in the long term.
Our main ridesharing competitor in the U.S. and Canada is Uber, and in Europe, our main competitors for app-based intermediation services for taxi and private hire vehicles are Uber and Bolt, though we also compete with other TNCs and taxicab and livery companies, as well as traditional automotive manufacturers and technology companies. Our main competitors in bike and scooter sharing include Lime, Bird, Fifteen, nextbike and Dott. We also compete with other manufacturers of bike and scooter sharing equipment for sales of such equipment, particularly in markets outside of the U.S.
Additionally, there are other non-U.S.-based TaaS network companies, bike and scooter sharing companies, consumer vehicle rental companies, non-ridesharing TNCs and traditional automotive manufacturers that may expand into North America and Europe. There are also a number of companies developing and introducing AV technology and TaaS offerings that either are competing with us or may compete with us in the future, including Alphabet (Waymo), Amazon (Zoox), Baidu, Bolt, and Tesla as well as many other technology companies and automobile manufacturers and suppliers. We anticipate continued challenges from current competitors as well as from new entrants into the TaaS market.
Within each of these markets, the cost to switch between products is low. Riders have a propensity to shift to the lowest-cost or highest-quality provider and could use more than one platform; drivers have a propensity to shift to the platform with the highest earnings potential. In addition, certain of our competitors and potential competitors have greater financial, technical, marketing, research and development, manufacturing and other resources, greater name recognition, longer operating
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histories or a larger user base than we do. They may be able to devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of offerings and offer lower prices than we do, which could adversely affect the health of our marketplace and our results of operations. Further, they may have greater resources to deploy towards the research, development and commercialization of new technologies, including AV technology or networks of shared bikes and scooters, or they may have other financial, technical or resource advantages. Additionally, shifts in consumer behavior, including the use of new or emerging technologies, such as AI-enabled platforms and digital assistants, may disintermediate our relationship with consumers by controlling how our products are accessed, presented or selected, which could redirect demand to competitors and adversely affect our demand and growth. These factors may allow our competitors or potential competitors to derive greater Gross Bookings, revenue and profits from their existing user bases, attract and retain qualified drivers and riders at lower costs, offer more attractive pricing on their platforms or respond more quickly to new and emerging technologies, revenue opportunities and trends. Our current and potential competitors may also establish cooperative or strategic relationships, or consolidate, amongst themselves or with third parties that may further enhance their resources and offerings. We have entered into strategic collaborations and partnerships with certain of the aforementioned competitors, including with respect to AVs, and these partnerships may lead to actual or perceived conflicts of interest or misalignment of strategic objectives.
We believe that our ability to compete effectively depends upon many factors both within and beyond our control, and if we are unable to compete successfully, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
If our markets do not continue to grow, grow more slowly than we expect or fail to grow as large or otherwise develop as we expect, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
The U.S. ridesharing market was introduced in 2012 and has continued to grow over time. We have since expanded to markets outside the U.S. which have grown over time. However, it is uncertain to what extent the markets will continue to grow, if at all. New technologies and changing consumer preferences may decrease growth rates or shift the ridesharing market and demand for ridesharing services. For example, certain of our markets are more mature than others and the growth of ridesharing in those markets may slow or decline. In addition, the market for our other offerings, such as our network of shared bikes and scooters, is continuing to develop and change, and it is uncertain whether demand for bike and scooter sharing will continue to grow and achieve wide market acceptance. Our success depends to a substantial extent on the willingness of people to widely adopt and continue to use ridesharing and our other offerings across a variety of use cases, as well as our ability to continue to expand our business to new users and in new markets, and to shift our business model in line with consumer preferences. If the public does not perceive ridesharing or our other offerings as beneficial, or chooses not to adopt them or continue to use them as a result of concerns regarding public health or safety, affordability, longer-term behavioral and social shifts, or for other reasons, whether as a result of incidents on our platform or on our competitors’ platforms, health concerns, or otherwise, then the market for our offerings may not further develop, may develop more slowly than we expect or may not achieve the growth potential we expect. Additionally, from time to time we re-evaluate the markets in which we operate and the performance of our offerings, and we have discontinued and may in the future discontinue operations in certain markets if, among other reasons, such markets are not developing as we expected. Any of the foregoing risks and challenges could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If we fail to cost-effectively attract and retain qualified drivers on our platform, or to increase the utilization of our platform by existing drivers, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be harmed.
Our continued growth depends in part on our ability to cost-effectively attract and retain qualified drivers who satisfy our screening criteria and procedures as well as our ability to increase their utilization of our platform. To attract and retain qualified drivers, we have, among other things, offered sign-up and referral bonuses, various driver incentives, developed new programs such as guaranteed earnings, and provided access to third-party vehicle rental programs for drivers who do not have or do not wish to use their own vehicle. Drivers are generally able to switch between our platform and competing platforms. If we do not continue to provide drivers with flexibility on our platform, compelling opportunities to increase earnings and other incentive programs, such as demand-based bonuses, that are comparable or superior to those of our competitors and other companies in the app-based work industry or other industries, or if drivers become dissatisfied with our programs and benefits or our requirements for drivers, including requirements regarding the vehicles they drive, we may fail to attract new drivers, retain current drivers or increase their utilization of our platform, or we may experience complaints, negative publicity, strikes or other work stoppages that could adversely affect our users and our business. For example, from time to time, in order to attract and retain drivers, and ensure an adequate supply of drivers to meet rider demand as well maintain our expectations for rider service, we offer increased incentives to improve driver supply. Our revenue and results of operations have been and may in the future be negatively impacted by supply incentives to the extent such incentives do not result in increased revenue or reduce our profitability. Additionally, we are required to provide benefits to drivers in certain markets in response to regulations or settlement agreements, including in California, New York and Massachusetts. Other jurisdictions have adopted or may adopt similar laws and regulations, and we may reach similar or other settlements with other jurisdictions, any of which may increase our expenses. Litigation seeking to reclassify drivers as employees is pending and/or threatened in multiple jurisdictions, including as described in the “Legal Proceedings” subheading in Note 10 “Commitments and Contingencies” to the condensed
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consolidated financial statements included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. If such litigation is successful in one or more jurisdictions, we may be required to classify drivers as employees rather than independent contractors in those jurisdictions. If we are required to shift our business model to classify drivers as employees, we would incur significant additional expenses that we may need to develop new offerings and approaches to attract and retain such drivers. These changes in our model would have significant adverse impacts on our business and operating results.
If drivers are unsatisfied with certain of our partners, including our third-party vehicle rental partners, our ability to attract and retain qualified drivers and to increase their utilization of our platform could be adversely affected. Further, incentives we provide to attract drivers could fail to attract and retain qualified drivers or fail to increase utilization, or could have other unintended adverse consequences. In addition, changes in certain laws and regulations, including immigration, labor and employment laws or background check requirements, may result in a shift or decrease in the pool of qualified drivers, which may result in increased competition for qualified drivers or higher costs of recruitment, operation and retention. As part of our business operations or research and development efforts, data on the vehicle may be collected and drivers may be uncomfortable or unwilling to drive knowing that data is being collected. Other factors outside of our control, such as concerns about personal health and safety, increases in the price of gasoline, vehicles or insurance, or concerns about the availability of government or other assistance programs if drivers continue to drive on our platform, may also reduce the number of drivers on our platform or their utilization of our platform, or impact our ability to onboard new drivers. If we fail to attract qualified drivers on favorable terms, fail to increase their utilization of our platform or lose qualified drivers to our competitors, we may not be able to meet the demand of riders, including maintaining a competitive price of rides to riders, and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
If we fail to cost-effectively attract new riders, or to increase utilization of our platform by existing riders, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be harmed.
Our success depends in part on our ability to cost-effectively attract new riders, retain existing riders and increase utilization of our platform by current riders. Riders have a wide variety of options for transportation, including personal vehicles, rental cars, taxis, public transit and other ridesharing and bike and scooter sharing offerings. Rider preferences may also change from time to time. To expand our rider base, we must appeal to new riders who have historically used other forms of transportation or other platforms. We believe that our paid marketing initiatives have been and will continue to be critical in promoting awareness of our offerings, which in turn drives new rider growth and rider utilization. However, our reputation, brand and ability to build trust with existing and new riders may be adversely affected by complaints and negative publicity about us, our offerings, our policies, including our pricing algorithms and pricing policies, the quality of our service, including timely pick-ups, drivers on our platform, or our competitors, even if factually incorrect or based on isolated incidents. Further, if existing and new riders do not perceive the transportation services provided by drivers on our platform to be reliable, safe and affordable, or if we fail to offer new and relevant offerings and features on our platform, we may not be able to attract or retain riders or to increase their utilization of our platform. As we continue to expand into new geographic areas, we will be relying in part on referrals from our existing riders to attract new riders, and therefore we must ensure that our existing riders remain satisfied with our offerings. In addition, we have experienced and may continue to experience seasonality in both ridesharing and bikes and scooters rentals during the winter months, which may harm our ability to attract and retain riders during such periods. From time to time, we have also experienced volatility in the health of our overall marketplace. We cannot predict whether these impacts will continue, including longer term. If we fail to continue to grow our rider base, retain existing riders or increase the overall utilization of our platform by existing riders, we may not be able to provide drivers with an adequate level of ride requests, and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. In addition, if we do not achieve sufficient utilization of our asset-intensive offerings such as our network of shared bikes and scooters, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We rely substantially on our wholly-owned subsidiary, deductibles, and third-party insurance policies to insure and reinsure auto-related and operations-related risks. If our insurance or reinsurance coverage is insufficient for the needs of our business or our insurance providers are unable to meet their obligations, we may not be able to mitigate the risks facing our business, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We require drivers to carry automobile insurance in most countries we offer services in, and in many cases we also procure insurance on behalf of drivers. In cases where we also procure insurance, from the time a driver becomes available to accept rides until the driver logs off and is no longer available to accept rides, we, through our wholly-owned insurance subsidiary and deductibles, often bear substantial financial risk with respect to auto-related incidents, which may include auto liability coverages, uninsured and underinsured motorist, auto physical damage, first party injury coverages including personal injury protection under U.S. state law and general business liabilities up to certain limits. To comply with insurance regulatory requirements in jurisdictions we operate in, we procure a number of third-party insurance policies which provide the required coverage in such jurisdictions. In nearly all U.S. states, our insurance subsidiary reinsures a portion, which may change from time to time, of the auto-related risk from some third-party insurance providers. In connection with our reinsurance and deductible arrangements, we deposit funds into trust accounts with a third-party financial institution from which some third-
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party insurance providers are reimbursed for claims payments. As we continue to expand our international footprint, we face increasingly complex and diverse regulatory insurance frameworks. If we fail to comply with these evolving regulatory frameworks, or if our third-party insurance providers or claims administrators become insolvent or otherwise fail to fulfill their obligations, we may be exposed to significant unmitigated losses. Such events could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We also procure third-party insurance policies to cover various operations-related risks including employment practices liability, workers’ compensation, business interruptions, cybersecurity and data breaches, crime, directors’ and officers’ liability and general business liabilities. For certain types of operations-related risks or future risks related to our new and evolving offerings, we may not be able to, or may choose not to, acquire insurance. In addition, we may not obtain enough insurance to adequately mitigate such operations-related risks or risks related to our new and evolving offerings, and we may have to pay high premiums, self-insured retentions or deductibles for the coverage we do obtain. Additionally, if any of our insurance or reinsurance providers becomes insolvent, it could be unable to pay any operations-related claims that we make. Certain losses may be excluded from insurance coverage including, but not limited to losses caused by intentional act, pollution, contamination, virus, bacteria, terrorism, war and civil unrest.
The amount of one or more auto-related claims or operations-related claims has exceeded and could continue to exceed our applicable aggregate coverage limits, for which we have borne and could continue to bear a portion of the excess, in addition to amounts already incurred in connection with deductibles, self-insured retentions or otherwise paid by our insurance subsidiary. Insurance providers have raised premiums and deductibles for many types of coverages and for a variety of commercial risks and are likely to do so in the future. As a result, our insurance and claims expenses could increase, or we may decide to raise our deductibles or self-insured retentions when our policies are renewed or replaced to manage pricing pressure. Our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected if (i) cost per claim, premiums or the number of claims significantly exceeds our historical experience, (ii) we experience a claim in excess of our coverage limits, (iii) our insurance providers fail to pay on our insurance claims, (iv) we experience a claim for which coverage is not provided, (v) the number of claims and average claim cost under our deductibles or self-insured retentions differs from historic averages, (vi) an insurance policy is canceled or non-renewed, or (vii) other insurance providers for drivers on our platform become insolvent.
Our actual losses may exceed our insurance reserves, which could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
We establish insurance reserves for claims incurred but not yet paid and claims incurred but not yet reported and any related estimable expenses, and we periodically evaluate and, as necessary, adjust our actuarial assumptions and insurance reserves as our experience develops or new information is learned. We employ various predictive modeling and actuarial techniques and make numerous assumptions based on available historical experience and industry statistics to estimate our insurance reserves. Estimating the number and severity of claims, as well as related judgment or settlement amounts, is inherently difficult, subjective and speculative. While an independent actuarial firm periodically reviews our reserves for appropriateness and provides claims reserve valuations, a number of external factors can affect the actual losses incurred for any given claim, including but not limited to the length of time the claim remains open, increases in healthcare costs, increases in automotive costs (including rental vehicles), legislative and regulatory developments, judicial developments and unexpected events. Such factors can impact the reserves for claims incurred but not yet paid as well as the actuarial assumptions used to estimate the reserves for claims incurred but not yet reported and any related estimable expenses for current and historical periods. The automotive insurance industry has experienced rising costs due to, among other things, inflation, supply chain challenges, and the increasing cost of medical care, which has driven an increase in actual losses in recent periods, and we expect these costs to continue to drive increased actual losses. Additionally, our insurance providers have encountered in the past, and may encounter in the future, instances of insurance fraud, which could increase our actual insurance-related costs. For any of the foregoing reasons, our actual losses for claims and related expenses may deviate, individually or in the aggregate, from the insurance reserves reflected in our condensed consolidated financial statements. If we determine that our estimated insurance reserves are inadequate, we may be required to increase such reserves at the time of the determination, which could result in an increase to our net loss in the period in which the shortfall is determined and negatively impact our financial condition and results of operations. For example, we have in the past experienced adverse development where we have needed to increase historical reserves attributable to liabilities in prior periods.
We rely on a limited number of third-party insurance service providers for our auto-related insurance claims, and if such providers fail to service insurance claims to our expectations or we do not maintain business relationships with them, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We rely on a limited number of third-party insurance service providers to service our auto-related claims. If any of our third-party insurance service providers fail to service claims to our expectations, discontinues or increases the cost of coverage or changes the terms of such coverage in a manner not favorable to drivers or to us, we cannot guarantee that we would be able to secure replacement coverage or services on reasonable terms in an acceptable time frame or at all. If we cannot find alternate
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third-party insurance service providers on terms acceptable to us, we may incur additional expenses related to servicing such auto-related claims using internal resources.
In recent periods, the automotive insurance industry has experienced rising costs due to, among other things, inflation, supply chain challenges, insurance fraud, and the cost of medical care, which has harmed our business, financial condition and results of operations, including through increased insurance renewal costs, and we expect it to continue to negatively impact the automotive insurance industry and our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We have, from time to time, ceded portions of retained insurance risk to third-parties, including as described in the “Insurance Reserves” subheading in Note 8 “Supplemental Financial Statement Information” to the consolidated financial statements included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K. These transactions may cause us to incur additional expenses in the total cost of this risk, and we are subject to recapture of the risk if any third-party reinsurer were to default on their reinsurance obligation.
Any negative publicity related to any of our third-party insurance service providers could adversely affect our reputation and brand and could potentially lead to increased regulatory or litigation exposure. Any of the foregoing risks could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our reputation, brand and the network effects among the drivers and riders on our platform are important to our success, and if we are not able to maintain and continue developing our reputation, brand and network effects, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We believe that building a strong reputation and brand as a safe, reliable and affordable platform and continuing to increase the strength of the network effects among the drivers and riders on our platform are critical to our ability to attract and retain qualified drivers and riders. The successful development of our reputation, brand and network effects will depend on a number of factors, many of which are outside our control. Negative perception of our platform or company may harm our reputation, brand and networks effects, including as a result of:
•complaints or negative publicity about us, drivers on our platform, riders, our product offerings, our ability to deliver on product promises, pricing or our policies and guidelines, including our practices and policies with respect to drivers, or the ridesharing industry, even if factually incorrect or based on isolated incidents;
•illegal, negligent, reckless or otherwise inappropriate behavior by drivers or riders or third parties, or concerns about the safety of our platform or ridesharing in general;
•a failure to provide drivers with a sufficient level of ride requests, charge drivers fees and commissions that are competitive or provide drivers with competitive fares and incentives;
•a failure to offer riders competitive ride pricing and pick-up times or the desired range of ride types;
•actual or perceived disruptions of or defects in our platform, such as privacy or data security breaches or incidents, site outages, payment disruptions or other incidents that impact the reliability of our offerings;
•litigation over, or investigations by regulators into, our platform or our business, including any adverse resolution of such litigation or investigations;
•users’ lack of awareness of, or compliance with, our policies, changes to our policies that are negatively received, or a failure to enforce our policies in a manner perceived as effective, fair and transparent;
•a failure to operate our business in a way that is consistent with our stated values and mission, including modification or discontinuation of our community or sustainability programs, illegal or otherwise inappropriate behavior by our management team or other employees or contractors, or negative perception of our treatment of employees;
•inadequate or unsatisfactory user support service experiences;
•negative responses by drivers or riders to new offerings on our platform;
•negative responses to our entry into new markets and geographies;
•accidents, defects or other negative incidents involving AVs or network of shared bikes and scooters on our platform or bikes and scooters sold to third parties;
•political or social policies or activities, including our response to employee sentiment related to these matters; or
•any of the foregoing with respect to our competitors, to the extent such resulting negative perception affects the public’s perception of us or our industry as a whole.
If we do not successfully maintain and develop our brand, reputation and network effects and successfully differentiate our offerings from competitive offerings, our business may not grow, we may not be able to compete effectively and we could
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lose existing qualified drivers or existing riders or fail to attract new qualified drivers or new riders, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, changes we may make to enhance and improve our offerings and balance the needs and interests of the drivers and riders on our platform may be viewed positively from one group’s perspective (such as riders) but negatively from another’s perspective (such as drivers), or may not be viewed positively by either drivers or riders. If we fail to balance the interests of drivers and riders or make changes that they view negatively, drivers and riders may stop using our platform, take fewer rides or use alternative platforms, any of which could adversely affect our reputation, brand, business, financial condition and results of operations.
Illegal, improper or otherwise inappropriate activity of users, whether or not occurring while utilizing our platform, has and could continue to expose us to liability and harm our business, brand, financial condition and results of operations.
Illegal, improper or otherwise inappropriate activities by users, including the activities of individuals who may have previously engaged with, but are not then receiving or providing services offered through, our platform or individuals who are intentionally impersonating users of our platform could adversely affect our brand, business, financial condition and results of operations. These activities may include criminal activity such as assault, theft, unauthorized use of credit and debit cards or bank accounts, as well as other misconduct such as sharing of rider or driver accounts, and identity theft to create user accounts. While we have implemented various measures intended to anticipate, identify and address the risk of these types of activities, these measures may not adequately address, and are unlikely to prevent, all illegal, improper or otherwise inappropriate activity by these parties from occurring in connection with our offerings. Such conduct has and could continue to expose us to liability or adversely affect our brand or reputation. At the same time, if the measures we have taken to guard against these illegal, improper or otherwise inappropriate activities, such as our requirement that all U.S. drivers undergo annual background checks or our two-way rating system and related policies, are too restrictive and inadvertently prevent qualified drivers and riders otherwise in good standing from using our offerings, or if we are unable to implement and communicate these measures fairly and transparently or are perceived to have failed to do so, the growth and retention of the number of qualified drivers and riders on our platform and their utilization of our platform could be negatively impacted. Further, any negative publicity related to the foregoing, whether such incident occurred on our platform, on our competitors’ platforms, or on any ridesharing platform, could adversely affect our reputation and brand or public perception of the ridesharing industry as a whole, which could negatively affect demand for platforms like ours, and potentially lead to increased regulatory or litigation exposure. Any of the foregoing risks could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We rely on third-party background check providers to screen potential and existing drivers, and if such providers fail to furnish and/or provide accurate information, or if such providers are unable to complete background checks or are delayed in completing background checks because of data access restrictions, software outages, cyberattacks, or otherwise, or if we do not maintain business relationships with them, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We rely on third-party background check providers to screen the records of potential and existing drivers to help identify those that are not qualified to utilize our platform pursuant to applicable laws or our internal standards. Our business has been and may continue to be adversely affected to the extent we cannot attract or retain qualified drivers as a result of such providers being unable to complete certain background checks, or being significantly delayed in completing certain background checks, because of data access restrictions, software outages, cyberattacks, unforeseen court or Department of Motor Vehicle closures, or otherwise, or to the extent that they do not meet their contractual obligations, our expectations or the requirements of applicable laws or regulations. If any of our third-party background check providers terminates its relationship with us or refuses to renew its agreement with us on commercially reasonable terms, we may need to find an alternate provider, and may not be able to secure similar terms or replace such partners in an acceptable time frame. If we cannot find alternate third-party background check providers on terms acceptable to us, we may not be able to timely onboard potential drivers, and as a result, our platform may be less attractive to qualified drivers. Further, if the background checks conducted by our third-party background check providers do not meet our expectations or the requirements under applicable laws and regulations, unqualified drivers may be permitted to provide rides on our platform, and as a result, our reputation and brand could be adversely affected and we could be subject to increased regulatory or litigation exposure.
We are also subject to a number of laws and regulations applicable to background checks for potential and existing drivers on our platform. If we or drivers on our platform fail to comply with applicable laws, rules and legislation, our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Any negative publicity related to any of our third-party background check providers, including publicity related to safety incidents or data security breaches or incidents, could adversely affect our reputation and brand, and could potentially lead to increased regulatory or litigation exposure. Any of the foregoing risks could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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Changes to our pricing could adversely affect our ability to attract or retain qualified drivers and riders.
Demand for our offerings is highly sensitive to the price of rides, the rates for time and distance driven, incentives paid to drivers and the fees we charge drivers. Many factors, including operating costs, legal and regulatory requirements or constraints and our current and future competitors’ pricing and marketing strategies including increased incentives for drivers, could significantly affect our pricing strategies. Certain of our competitors offer, or may in the future offer, lower-priced or a broader range of offerings. Similarly, certain competitors may use marketing strategies that enable them to attract or retain qualified drivers and riders at a lower cost than we do. This includes the use of algorithms to set dynamic prices for riders and earnings for drivers that are dependent on various factors, such as the route, time of day, and pick-up and drop-off locations of riders. From time to time, we have made pricing changes and spent significant amounts on marketing and both rider and driver incentives, and we expect that, from time to time, we will be required, through competition, regulation or otherwise, to reduce the price of rides for riders, increase the incentives we pay to drivers on our platform or reduce the fees we charge the drivers on our platform, or to increase our marketing and other expenses to attract and retain qualified drivers and riders in response to competitive pressures. These actions may adversely affect our business and financial results and may not have the desired benefits. At times, in certain geographic markets, we have offered, and may continue to offer, driver incentives that cause the total amount of the fare that a driver retains, combined with the driver incentives a driver receives from us, to increase, at times meeting or exceeding the amount of Gross Bookings we generate for a given ride. Furthermore, the economic sensitivity of drivers and riders on our platform may vary by geographic location, and as we expand, our pricing methodologies may not enable us to compete effectively in these locations. Local regulations may affect our pricing in certain geographic locations, which could amplify these effects. For example, state and local laws and regulations regarding pricing limitations during government declared States of Emergency have imposed limits on prices for certain services, and state and local laws and regulations have imposed minimum earnings standards for drivers, which, at times, have caused us to increase prices in certain markets, including California, New York, Washington, Massachusetts and Minnesota. We have tested or launched, and expect to in the future test or launch, new pricing strategies and initiatives, such as our Lyft fee cap, subscription packages and driver or rider loyalty programs. We have also modified, and expect to in the future modify, existing pricing methodologies, such as our up-front pricing policy. To the extent any strategies, initiatives or modifications to our pricing methodologies lead to real or perceived harm to driver earnings, our ability to attract or retain qualified drivers may be adversely affected. Any of the foregoing actions may not ultimately be successful in attracting and retaining qualified drivers and riders or may result in loss of market share, negative public perception and harm to our reputation.
While we continue to maintain that drivers on our platform are not employees in legal and administrative proceedings, our arguments may ultimately be unsuccessful. A determination in, resolution of, or settlement of, any legal proceeding, whether we are party to such legal proceeding or not, that classifies a driver utilizing a ridesharing platform as an employee, may require us to revise our pricing and earnings methodologies, or make other changes to our business and operations, to account for such a change to driver classification. Proposition 22 in California, HB 2076 in Washington and agreements with the New York and Massachusetts Attorneys General have enabled us to provide additional earning opportunities to drivers in those states, including guaranteed earnings. The transition has required, and will continue to require, additional costs and we expect to face other challenges as we transition drivers to these new models, including changes to our pricing. We have also tested or launched, and may in the future test or launch, certain changes to the rates, fees and payment structure for drivers on our platform, which may not ultimately be successful in attracting and retaining qualified drivers. Moreover, while the California Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge to Proposition 22 on July 25, 2024, other potential litigation to overturn Proposition 22, litigation over Lyft’s compliance with Proposition 22, or the reclassification of drivers on our platform as employees could reduce the available supply of drivers as drivers leave the platform due to the changes in flexibility under an employment model, or other changes we may need to make to our business and operations. While we do and will attempt to optimize ride prices and balance supply and demand in our ridesharing marketplace, our assessments may not be accurate. We have experienced in the past and may experience in the future underpricing or overpricing of our offerings due to changes we make to the technology used in our pricing. In addition, if the offerings on our platform change, then we may need to revise our pricing methodologies. As we continue to launch new and develop existing asset-intensive offerings such as our network of shared bikes and scooters and certain vehicles in our Express Drive program, factors such as maintenance, debt service, depreciation, asset life, supply chain efficiency and asset replacement may affect our pricing methodologies. In addition, we have established environmental programs that may also affect our pricing. Any such changes to our pricing methodologies or our ability to efficiently price our offerings could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If we are unable to efficiently grow and further develop our network of shared bikes and scooters, which may not grow as we expect or become profitable over time, and manage the related risks, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
While some major cities have widely adopted bike and scooter sharing, there can be no assurance that new markets we enter will accept, or existing markets will continue to accept, bike and scooter sharing, and even if they do, that we will be able to execute on our business strategy or that our related offerings will be successful in such markets. For example, although we have exclusive rights to operate bike or scooter sharing programs in certain jurisdictions, we have faced competition in
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contravention of such rights and have incurred costs to defend against such challenges. A negative determination in other legal disputes regarding bike and scooter sharing, including an adverse determination regarding our existing rights to operate, could adversely affect our competitive position and results of operations. Additionally, we may from time to time be denied permits to operate, or be temporarily restricted from operating our bike share program or scooter share program in certain jurisdictions due to, among other things, public health and safety measures. While we do not expect any denial or suspension in an individual region to have a material impact, these denials or suspensions in the aggregate could adversely affect our business and results of operations. Even if we are able to successfully develop and implement our network of shared bikes and scooters, there may be heightened public skepticism of this nascent service offering. In particular, there could be negative public perception surrounding bike and scooter sharing, including the overall safety and the potential for injuries occurring as a result of accidents involving an increased number of bikes and scooters on the road, and the general safety of the bikes and scooters themselves. Such negative public perception may result from incidents on our platform or incidents involving our competitors’ offerings.
We design and contract to manufacture bikes and scooters using a limited number of external suppliers, and a continuous, stable and cost-effective supply of bikes and scooters that meets our standards is critical to our operations. We expect to continue to rely on external suppliers in the future. There can be no assurance we will be able to maintain our existing relationships with these suppliers and continue to be able to source our bikes and scooters on a stable basis, at a reasonable price or at all. We also design and contract to manufacture certain assets related to our network of shared bikes and scooters and we rely on a small number of suppliers, and in some instances a sole supplier, for components and manufacturing services. Similarly, we rely on external vendors to provide field services to our bike and scooter operations. There can be no assurance we will be able to maintain our existing relationships with these vendors. Also, from time to time we transition these services in one or more geographies from one vendor to another, and the transition process could interrupt or otherwise adversely affect our operations.
The revenue we generate from our network of shared bikes and scooters fluctuates from quarter to quarter due to, among other things, seasonal factors including weather. Our limited operating history makes it difficult for us to assess the exact nature or extent of the effects of seasonality on our network of shared bikes and scooters, however, we generally experience a decline in demand for our bike and scooter rentals over the winter season and an increase during more temperate and dry seasons. Additionally, from time to time we may re-evaluate the markets in which we operate and the performance of our network of shared bikes and scooters, and we have discontinued and may in the future discontinue operations in certain markets as a result of such evaluations. For example, in recent years, we discontinued our shared scooter and/or shared bike programs in a number of cities due to a number of factors including onerous contractual requirements, institutionalized theft, and lack of public investment. Any of the foregoing risks and challenges could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Challenges relating to the supply chain for our network of shared bikes and scooters could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The supply chain for our bikes and scooters exposes us to multiple potential sources of delivery failure or shortages. In the event that our supply of bikes and scooters or key components is interrupted or there are significant increases in prices, such as due to actual or proposed tariff increases, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. Changes in business conditions, force majeure, any public health crises or pandemics, governmental or regulatory changes and other factors beyond our control have affected and could continue to affect our suppliers’ ability to deliver products and our ability to deploy products to the market, or deliver products to third parties, on a timely basis.
We incur significant costs related to the design, purchase, sourcing and operations of our network of shared bikes and scooters and we expect to continue incurring such costs. The prices and availability of bikes and scooters and related products may fluctuate depending on factors beyond our control including market and economic conditions, tariffs, changes to import or export regulations and demand. Substantial increases in prices of these assets or the cost of our operations would increase our costs and reduce our margins, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Further, customs authorities may challenge or disagree with our classification, valuation or country of origin determinations of our imports. Such challenges could result in tariff liabilities, including tariffs on past imports, as well as penalties and interest. Although we have reserved for potential payments of possible tariff liabilities in our condensed consolidated financial statements, if these liabilities exceed such reserves, our financial condition could be harmed.
Our bikes and scooters or components thereof, including bikes and scooters and components that we design and contract to manufacture using third-party suppliers, have experienced and may in the future experience quality problems, product issues or acts of vandalism or theft from time to time, which could result in decreased usage of our network of shared bikes and scooters or loss of our bikes or scooters. There can be no assurance we will be able to detect and fix all product issues, vandalism or theft of our bikes and scooters. Failure to do so could result in lost revenue, litigation or regulatory challenges, including personal injury or products liability claims, and harm to our reputation.
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If we are unable to efficiently develop, enable, or implement partnerships with other companies to offer AV technologies on our platform in a timely manner, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We have invested, and plan to continue to invest, in the development of AV-related technology for use on our platform. We currently partner and have partnered in the past with several companies to develop AV technology and offerings, and to make AV technology and offerings available on our platform. Autonomous driving is a new and evolving market, which makes it difficult to predict its acceptance, its growth, and the magnitude and timing of necessary investments and other trends, including when it may be more broadly or commercially available. Our initiatives may not perform as expected, which would reduce the return on our investments in this area and our current or future partners may decide to terminate or scale back their partnerships with us. For example, in the past we have incurred impairment charges in connection with the wind-down of an AV partner. Following the sale of our Level 5 self-driving vehicle division in 2021, we no longer develop our own AV technology, so we must develop and maintain partnerships with other companies to offer AV technology on our platform, and if we are unable to do so, or if we do so at a slower pace or at a higher cost or if our technology is less capable relative to our competitors, or if our strategy with regard to AV technology development is not successful, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. Likewise, even if we successfully engage with AV technology partners, if our current or future AV technology partners are delayed or prevented from developing AV technology, for example, due to regulatory scrutiny or a decrease in available capital, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. Further, the ecosystem of AV development is complex and certain of our partners are also our competitors. Some of these partners also partner with our other competitors. Accordingly, these partnerships and relationships may not result in the intended benefits or return on investment we expect, and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
The AV industry may not continue to develop, or AVs may not be adopted by the market, which could adversely affect our prospects, business, financial condition and results of operations.
Autonomous driving involves a complex set of technologies, including the continued development of sensing, computing and control technology. We have relied on building strategic partnerships with third-party developers of such technologies, as such technologies are costly and in varying stages of maturity. There is no assurance that these current or future partnerships will result in the development of market-viable technologies or commercial success in a timely manner or at all. In order to gain acceptance, the reliability of AV technology must continue to advance.
Additional challenges to the development and deployment of AV technology, all of which are outside of our control, include:
•market acceptance of AVs;
•state, federal or municipal licensing requirements, safety standards, and other regulatory measures;
•necessary changes to infrastructure to enable adoption;
•concerns regarding electronic security and privacy;
•levels of investment by developers of AV technology; and
•public perception regarding the safety of AVs for drivers, riders, pedestrians and other vehicles on the road.
There are a number of existing laws, regulations and standards that may apply to AV technology, including vehicle standards that were not originally intended to apply to vehicles that may not have a human driver. Such regulations continue to rapidly evolve, which may increase the likelihood of complex, conflicting or otherwise inconsistent regulations, which may delay our ability to bring AV technology to market or significantly increase the compliance costs associated with this business strategy. In addition, there can be no assurance that the market will accept AVs or the timing of such acceptance, if at all, and even if it does, that we will be able to execute on our business strategy or that our strategy and offerings will be successful in the market. Even if AV technology is successfully developed and implemented, there may be heightened public skepticism of this nascent technology and its adopters. In particular, there could be negative public perception surrounding AVs, including the overall safety and the potential for injuries or death occurring as a result of accidents involving AVs and the potential loss of income to human drivers resulting from widespread market adoption of AVs. Such negative public perception may result from incidents on our platform, incidents on our partners’ or competitors’ platforms, or events around AVs more generally. Any of the foregoing risks and challenges could adversely affect our prospects, business, financial condition and results of operations.
Claims from riders, drivers or third parties that allege harm, whether or not our platform is in use, adversely affect our business, brand, financial condition and results of operations.
We are regularly subject to claims, lawsuits, investigations and other legal proceedings relating to injuries to, or deaths of, riders, drivers or third-parties. We are also subject to claims alleging that we are directly or vicariously liable for the acts of the drivers on our platform or for harm related to the actions of drivers, riders, or third parties, or the management and safety of
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our platform and our assets, including harm caused by criminal activity. We are also subject to personal injury claims whether or not such injury actually occurred as a result of activity on our platform. For example, platform users and third parties have in the past asserted legal claims against us in connection with personal injuries related to the actions of a driver or rider who may have previously utilized our platform, but was not at the time of such injury. We have incurred expenses to settle personal injury claims, which we sometimes choose to settle for reasons including expediency, protection of our reputation and to prevent the uncertainty of litigating, and we expect that such expenses will continue to increase as our business grows and we face increasing public scrutiny. Regardless of the outcome of any legal proceeding, any injuries to, or deaths of, any riders, drivers or third parties could result in negative publicity and harm to our brand, reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations. Our insurance policies and programs may not provide sufficient coverage to adequately mitigate the potential liability we face, especially where any one incident, or a group of incidents, could cause disproportionate harm, and we may have to pay high premiums or deductibles for our coverage and, for certain situations and/or categories of claims, we may not be able to secure coverage at all.
As we operate our network of shared bikes and scooters, we are subject to claims, lawsuits, investigations or other legal proceedings related to injuries to, or deaths of, riders of our shared bikes and scooters, including potential indemnification claims. In some cases, we could be required to indemnify governmental entities or operating partners for claims arising out of issues, including issues that may be outside of our control, such as the condition of the public right of way. Any such claims arising from the use of our network of shared bikes and scooters, regardless of merit or outcome, could lead to negative publicity, harm to our reputation and brand, significant legal, regulatory or financial exposure or decreased use of our network of shared bikes and scooters. Further, the bikes and scooters we design and contract to manufacture using third-party suppliers and manufacturers, including certain assets and components we design and have manufactured for us, have in the past contained and could in the future contain design or manufacturing product issues, which could also lead to injuries or death to riders. There can be no assurance we will be able to detect, prevent, or fix all product issues, and failure to do so could harm our reputation and brand or result in personal injury or products liability claims or regulatory proceedings. Any of the foregoing risks could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our shared bikes and scooters have experienced product issues from time to time, which has in the past resulted in, and, in the future may result in, product recalls and removal from service, injuries, litigation, enforcement actions and regulatory proceedings, and could adversely affect our business, brand, financial condition and results of operations.
We design, contract to design and manufacture, sell, and directly and indirectly modify, maintain and repair bikes and scooters for our network of shared bikes and scooters. Such bikes and scooters have in the past contained, and, in the future may contain, product issues related to their design, materials or construction, may be improperly maintained or repaired or may be subject to vandalism. These product issues, improper maintenance or repair or vandalism have in the past unexpectedly interfered, and could in the future unexpectedly interfere, with the intended operations of the bikes or scooters, and have resulted, and could in the future result, in other safety concerns, including alleged injuries to riders or third parties. Although we, our contract manufacturers, and our third-party service providers test our bikes and scooters before they are deployed onto our network or sold, there can be no assurance we will be able to detect or prevent all product issues.
Failure to detect, prevent, fix or timely report real or perceived product issues and vandalism, or to properly maintain or repair our bikes and scooters has resulted or may result in a variety of consequences including product recalls and removal from service, service interruptions, alleged injuries, litigation, enforcement actions, including fines or penalties, regulatory proceedings, and negative publicity. Even if injuries to riders or third parties are not the result of any product issues in, vandalism of, or the failure to properly maintain or repair our bikes or scooters, we may incur expenses to defend or settle any claims or respond to regulatory inquiries, and our brand and reputation may be harmed. Any of the foregoing risks could also result in decreased usage of our network of shared bikes and scooters and adversely affect our business, brand, financial conditions and results of operations.
Any actual or perceived security or privacy breach or incident could interrupt our operations, harm our brand and adversely affect our reputation, brand, business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our business involves the collection, storage, transmission and other processing of our users’ personal data and other sensitive data. Additionally, we maintain other confidential, proprietary, or otherwise sensitive information relating to our business, including intellectual property, and similar information we receive from third parties. Unauthorized parties have in the past gained access, and may in the future gain access, to systems or facilities we maintain or use in our business through various means, including gaining unauthorized access into our systems or facilities or those of our service providers, partners or users on our platform, or attempting to fraudulently induce our employees, service providers, partners, users or others into disclosing rider names, passwords, payment card information or other sensitive information, which may in turn be used to access our information technology systems, or attempting to fraudulently induce our employees, partners, customers, users or others into manipulating payment information, resulting in the fraudulent transfer of funds to criminal actors. In addition, users on our platform could have vulnerabilities on their own devices that are entirely unrelated to our systems and platform, but could mistakenly attribute their own vulnerabilities to us. Further, breaches or incidents experienced by other companies may be
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leveraged against us. For example, credential stuffing attacks are common and sophisticated actors can mask their attacks, making them difficult to identify and prevent. Certain efforts may be state-sponsored or supported by significant financial and technological resources, making them more difficult to detect.
Although we have developed systems and processes designed to protect our users’ data and prevent breaches and incidents, these measures cannot guarantee total security or prevent incidents from impacting our platform. Our information technology and infrastructure are subject to cyberattacks, breaches and incidents, including ransomware or other malware, which have resulted in and may result in interruptions to our operations or unavailability of our platform. Further, unauthorized parties or authorized third parties may be able to access our users’ personal information and payment card data that are accessible through those systems. Additionally, as we expand our operations, including licensing or sharing data with third parties and acquiring or partnering with other companies, we increasingly have employees or third-party relationships in jurisdictions outside the U.S., or expand work-from-home practices of our employees, our exposure to cyberattacks, breaches and incidents may increase. As a result of conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, there may be a heightened risk of potential cyberattacks by state actors or others. Further, employee and service provider error, malfeasance or other vulnerabilities, bugs or errors in the storage, use or transmission of personal information could result in an actual or perceived breach or incident. Increasing use of AI tools, including for the identification and exploitation of vulnerabilities, may increase the likelihood of security breaches and incidents occurring and the scope and impact of breaches and incidents that do occur. In the past, there have been allegations regarding violations of our policies restricting access to personal information we store, and we may be subject to these types of allegations in the future. Our service providers also face various security threats, and we and our third-party service providers may not have the resources or technical sophistication to anticipate, prevent, respond to, or mitigate cyberattacks or security breaches or incidents, and we or they may face difficulties or delays in identifying and responding to cyberattacks, breaches and incidents.
Any actual or perceived breach or incident affecting us or other parties with which we share data or that are processing data on our behalf could interrupt our operations, result in our platform being unavailable or otherwise disrupted, result in loss, alteration, unavailability or unauthorized use, disclosure or other processing of data, result in fraudulent transfer of funds, harm our reputation and brand, damage our relationships with third-party partners, result in regulatory investigations and other proceedings, private claims, demands, litigation and other proceedings, loss of our ability to accept credit or debit card payments, increased card processing fees, and other significant legal, regulatory and financial exposure and lead to loss of driver or rider confidence in, or decreased use of, our platform, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, any actual or perceived compromise, breach or incident impacting AVs, whether through our platform or our competitors’, could result in legal, regulatory and financial exposure and lead to loss of rider confidence in our platform, which could significantly undermine our business. Further, any cyberattacks directed toward, or breaches or incidents impacting, our competitors could reduce confidence in the ridesharing industry as a whole and, as a result, reduce confidence in us.
We incur significant costs in an effort to detect and prevent security breaches and other security-related incidents and we expect our costs will increase as we continue to implement systems and processes designed to prevent and address security breaches and incidents. In the event of a future breach or incident, we could be required to expend additional significant capital and other resources in an effort to respond to or prevent further breaches or incidents, which may require us to divert substantial resources. Moreover, we could be required or otherwise find it appropriate to expend significant capital and other resources to respond to, notify third parties of, and otherwise address the breach or incident and its root cause.
Additionally, defending against claims or litigation based on any actual or perceived privacy or security breach or incident, regardless of their merit, could be costly and divert management’s attention. We cannot be certain that our insurance coverage will be adequate for such liabilities, that insurance will continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, or that any insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could have an adverse effect on our reputation, brand, business, financial condition and results of operations.
We primarily rely on Amazon Web Services to deliver our offerings to users on our platform, and any disruption of or interference with our use of Amazon Web Services could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We currently host our platform and support our operations using Amazon Web Services (“AWS”), a third-party provider of cloud infrastructure services. We do not have control over the operations of the facilities of AWS that we use. AWS’ facilities are vulnerable to damage or interruption from natural disasters, cyberattacks, terrorist attacks, power outages and similar events or acts of misconduct, and AWS has experienced, and caused their users to experience, service outages and interruptions for a variety of reasons which has impacted us in the past. Our platform’s continuing and uninterrupted performance is critical to our success. We have experienced, and expect that in the future we will experience interruptions, delays and outages in service and availability from time to time due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes,
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human or software errors, website hosting disruptions and capacity constraints. In addition, any changes in AWS’ service levels may adversely affect our ability to meet the requirements of users. Since our platform’s continuing and uninterrupted performance is critical to our success, sustained or repeated system failures would reduce the attractiveness of our offerings. It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve our performance, especially during peak usage times, as we expand and the usage of our offerings increases. Any negative publicity arising from these disruptions could harm our reputation and brand and may adversely affect the usage of our offerings.
Under our commercial agreement with AWS, we committed to spend an aggregate of at least $562.5 million between January 2026 and December 2030 on AWS services, with a minimum amount of $100 million in each of the five years. If we fail to meet the minimum purchase commitment during any year, we may be required to pay the difference, which could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. Our commercial agreement with AWS will remain in effect until expiration in December 2030. AWS or Lyft may terminate the agreement for cause upon a material breach of the agreement, subject to either party providing prior written notice and a 30-day cure period. In the event that our agreement with AWS is terminated or we add additional cloud infrastructure service providers, we may experience significant costs or downtime in connection with the transfer to, or the addition of, new cloud infrastructure service providers. Any of the above circumstances or events may harm our reputation and brand, reduce the availability or usage of our platform, lead to a significant short term loss of revenue, increase our costs and impair our ability to attract new users, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We rely on third-party and affiliate vehicle rental partners for our Express Drive program, as well as third-party vehicle supply, fleet management and finance partners to support our Express Drive program, and if we cannot manage our relationships with such parties and other risks related to our Express Drive program, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We rely on third-party and affiliate vehicle rental partners as well as third-party vehicle supply, fleet management and finance partners to supply vehicles to drivers for our Express Drive program. If any of our third-party vehicle rental partners or third-party vehicle supply, fleet management and finance partners terminates its relationship with us or refuses to renew its agreement with us on commercially reasonable terms, the availability of vehicles for drivers in certain markets could be adversely impacted, and we may need to find an alternate provider, and may not be able to secure similar terms or replace such partners in an acceptable time frame. Similarly, in the event that vehicle manufacturers issue recalls that affect the usage or the supply of vehicles or automotive parts is interrupted, including as a result of public health crises or pandemics, affecting vehicles in these partners’ fleets, the supply of vehicles available from these partners could become constrained. If we cannot find alternate third-party vehicle rental providers on terms acceptable to us, or these partners’ fleets are impacted by events such as vehicle recalls, we may not be able to meet the driver and consumer demand for rental vehicles, and as a result, our platform may be less attractive to qualified drivers and consumers. In addition, due to a number of factors, including our agreements with our vehicle rental partners and our auto-related insurance program, we incur an incrementally higher insurance cost from our Express Drive program compared to the corresponding cost from the rest of our ridesharing marketplace offerings. If Flexdrive, Lyft’s independently managed subsidiary, is unable to manage costs of operating Flexdrive’s fleet and potential shortfalls between such costs and the rental fees collected from drivers, Lyft and Flexdrive may update the pricing methodologies related to Flexdrive’s offering in Lyft’s Express Drive program which could increase prices, and in turn adversely affect our ability to attract and retain qualified drivers through the Express Drive program.
Any negative publicity related to any of our third-party and affiliate vehicle rental partners, including publicity related to quality standards or safety concerns, could adversely affect our reputation and brand and could potentially lead to increased regulatory or litigation exposure. Any of the foregoing risks could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our Express Drive program and planned future fleet businesses and operations expose us to certain risks, including reductions in the utilization of vehicles in the fleets.
Our independently managed subsidiary, Flexdrive operates a portion of the Express Drive vehicle rental program for drivers and sources its fleet from a range of auto manufacturers. In order to operate the Express Drive vehicle rental program, we rely on these auto manufacturers to provide vehicles. To the extent that any of these auto manufacturers significantly curtail production, increase the cost of purchasing cars or decline to provide cars to Flexdrive on terms or at prices consistent with past agreements, Flexdrive may be unable to obtain a sufficient number of vehicles for Lyft to operate the Express Drive business without significantly increasing fleet costs or reducing volumes. In addition, we have established environmental programs that may limit the range of auto manufacturers or vehicles that Flexdrive can source or purchase from, which would limit our ability to find alternative sources. In the event of natural disasters or public health crises or pandemics, operating rental locations may be difficult or impossible. Flexdrive’s ability to make vehicles available for rent through the Express Drive program, or demand for the Express Drive Program, has been and could be adversely affected, resulting in reduced utilization of the vehicles in the fleets, which would adversely affect our profitability.
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In addition, macroeconomic factors such as tariffs and import restrictions may lead to an increase in new vehicle prices and/or availability. Flexdrive has previously experienced and may in the future experience production and delivery delays which can hinder its ability to meet demand and grow the fleet. New vehicle production delays also lead to holding onto existing vehicles longer which in turn leads to increased costs relating to those vehicles.
The costs of the fleet vehicles may also be adversely impacted by the relative strength of the used car market. Flexdrive currently sells vehicles through auctions, third-party resellers and other channels in the used vehicle marketplace. Such channels may not produce stable used vehicle prices and Flexdrive has experienced fluctuations in the used car market. It may be difficult to estimate the residual value of vehicles used in ridesharing, such as those rented to drivers through our Express Drive program. If Flexdrive is unable to obtain and maintain the fleet of vehicles cost-efficiently or if Flexdrive is unable to accurately forecast the residual values of vehicles in the fleet, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Flexdrive has also begun providing autonomous vehicle fleet management services where we operate fleets of AV vehicles for AV manufacturer partners. These services may include commitments related to vehicle availability, maintenance, charging, cleaning, staging and depot operations. Failure of Flexdrive’s ability to meet its service obligations in whole or in part could harm our reputation, expose us to liability, including contractual claims and litigation, increase our operating costs and adversely affect our relationships with AV partners.
We rely on third-party payment processors to process payments made by riders and payments made to drivers on our platform, and if we cannot manage our relationships with such third parties and other payment-related risks, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We rely on a limited number of third-party payment processors to process payments made by riders and payments made to drivers on our platform. If any of our third-party payment processors terminates its relationship with us or refuses to renew its agreement with us on commercially reasonable terms, we would need to find an alternate payment processor, and may not be able to secure similar terms or replace such payment processor in an acceptable time frame. Further, the software and services provided by our third-party payment processors may not meet our expectations, contain errors or vulnerabilities, be compromised or experience outages. Any of these risks could cause us to lose our ability to accept online payments or other payment transactions or make timely payments to drivers on our platform, any of which could make our platform less convenient and attractive to users and adversely affect our ability to attract and retain qualified drivers and riders.
Nearly all rider payments and driver payouts are made by credit card, debit card or through third-party payment services, which subjects us to certain payment network or service provider operating rules, to certain regulations and to the risk of fraud. We may in the future offer new payment options to riders that may be subject to additional operating rules, regulations and risks. We may also be subject to a number of other laws and regulations relating to the payments we accept from riders, including with respect to money laundering, money transfers, privacy, data protection and information security. If we fail to comply with applicable rules and regulations, we may be subject to civil or criminal penalties, fines or higher transaction fees and may lose our ability to accept online payments or other payment card transactions, which could make our offerings less convenient and attractive to riders. If any of these events were to occur, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
For example, if we are deemed to be a money transmitter as defined by applicable regulation, we could be subject to certain laws, rules and regulations enforced by multiple authorities and governing bodies in the U.S. and numerous state and local agencies who may define money transmitter differently. For example, certain states may have a more expansive view of who qualifies as a money transmitter. Additionally, outside of the U.S., we could be subject to additional laws, rules and regulations related to the provision of payments and financial services, and if we expand into new jurisdictions, the foreign regulations and regulators governing our business that we are subject to will expand as well. If we are found to be a money transmitter under any applicable regulation and we are not in compliance with such regulations, we may be subject to fines or other penalties in one or more jurisdictions levied by federal, state or local regulators, including state Attorneys General, as well as those levied by foreign regulators. In addition to fines, penalties for failing to comply with applicable rules and regulations could include criminal and civil proceedings, forfeiture of significant assets or other enforcement actions. We could also be required to make changes to our business practices or compliance programs as a result of regulatory scrutiny.
For various payment options, we are required to pay fees such as interchange and processing fees that are imposed by payment processors, payment networks and financial institutions. These fees are subject to increases, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Additionally, our payment processors require us to comply with payment card network operating rules, which are set and interpreted by the payment card networks and which include, among other obligations, requirements to comply with security standards. The payment card networks could adopt new operating rules or interpret or re-interpret existing rules in ways that might prohibit us from providing certain offerings to some users, be costly to implement or difficult to follow, and if we fail or are alleged to fail to comply with applicable rules or requirements of payment card networks, we may be subject to fines or higher transaction fees and may lose our ability to accept
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online payments or other payment card transactions. We have agreed to reimburse our payment processors for fines they are assessed by payment card networks if we or the users on our platform violate these rules. Any of the foregoing risks could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We rely on other third-party service providers and if such third parties do not perform adequately or terminate their relationships with us, our costs may increase and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our success depends in part on our relationships with other third-party service providers. For example, we rely on third-party encryption and authentication technologies licensed from third parties that are designed to securely transmit personal information provided by drivers and riders on our platform. Further, from time to time, we enter into strategic commercial partnerships in connection with the development of new technology, the growth of our qualified driver base, the provision of new or enhanced offerings for users on our platform and our expansion into new markets. If any of our partners terminates its relationship with us, or refuses to renew its agreement with us on commercially reasonable terms, we would need to find an alternate provider, and may not be able to secure similar terms or replace such providers in an acceptable time frame. Similarly, in the event that our strategic partners experience a disruption in their operations, our ability to continue providing certain product offerings could become constrained. If we cannot find alternate partners, we may not be able to meet the demand for these product offerings, and as a result, these offerings and our platform may become less attractive. We also rely on other software and services supplied by third parties, such as communications and internal software, and our business may be adversely affected to the extent such software and services do not meet our expectations, contain errors or vulnerabilities, are compromised or experience outages. Any of these risks could increase our costs and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Further, any negative publicity related to any of our third-party partners, including any publicity related to quality standards or safety concerns, could adversely affect our reputation and brand, and could potentially lead to increased regulatory or litigation exposure. In addition, in certain cases, we rely on these third-party partners to provide certain data that is important to the management of our business. Errors in the data, or failure to provide data in a timely manner, could adversely affect our ability to manage our business and could impact the accuracy of our financial reporting.
We use and incorporate technology and intellectual property from third parties into our platform, products, and services. We cannot be certain that such technology, intellectual property, or third parties are not infringing the intellectual property rights of others or that these third parties have sufficient rights to the technology or intellectual property in all jurisdictions in which we may operate. Some of our license agreements may be terminated by our licensors for convenience. If we are unable to obtain or maintain rights to any of this technology because of intellectual property infringement claims brought by third parties against our suppliers and licensors or against us, or if we are unable to continue to obtain the technology or enter into new agreements on commercially reasonable terms, our ability to develop our platform or products containing that technology or provide services using that technology could be severely limited and our business could be harmed. Additionally, if we are unable to access necessary technology from third parties, we may be forced to acquire or develop alternate technology, which may require significant time and effort and may be of lower quality or performance standards and may subject us to certain risks discussed in the preceding paragraph that are currently borne by third parties. This would limit and delay our ability to provide new or competitive offerings and increase our costs. If alternate technology cannot be obtained or developed or if we are unable to develop such alternate technology at commercially reasonable levels of risk, we may not be able to offer certain functionality as part of our offerings, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our advertising platform, Lyft Ads, is nascent and subject to various risks and uncertainties, which may adversely affect our business and financial results.
We have introduced Lyft Ads, a media and advertising platform from which we earn revenue from third parties who advertise through various offerings on our platform. We have limited experience and operating history offering media and advertising on our platform, and our efforts to develop Lyft Ads and generate revenue are still in the early stages. We may never generate sufficient revenue to offset our investment or achieve the returns we expect.
Lyft Ads and our ability to generate and increase revenue from Lyft Ads are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including:
•our ability to compete effectively for advertising spend, including our ability to create valuable products, attract and retain advertisers, particularly because our advertisers do not have long-term commitments with us;
•the impact of seasonal, cyclical or other shifts in advertising spend, including the impact of macroeconomic conditions, such as changes in market conditions due to actual or proposed tariffs;
•our ability to deliver advertisements, including the availability, accuracy, utility, and security of analytics and measurement solutions offered by us or third parties that demonstrate the value of our ads to marketers, or our ability to further improve such tools;
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•our failure to increase the number of riders who engage with Lyft Ads or changes in viewer demographics that impact advertiser spend;
•adverse legal developments (regulatory, legislative, and industry) relating to advertising, including relating to the collection, use, and other processing of information and other privacy considerations, including with respect to ad targeting and measurement tools;
•our inability to deliver advertisements due to hardware, software or network limitations;
•changes in third-party policies such as changes to mobile device operating systems that impose heightened restrictions on our access and use of user data by allowing users to more easily opt-out of tracking of activity across devices, which may negatively impact the ability to measure, deliver and select ads to be served;
•adverse media reports or other negative publicity involving us, our business or advertisers on our platform that may impact our brand and reputation and the willingness of advertisers to advertise on our platform, this could include any driver, rider, or third party dissatisfaction due to advertisements;
•any liability, brand or reputational harm from advertisements shown on our platform; and
•any uncertainty related to third-party agreements to manage, sell ads, or otherwise to provide services in the Lyft Ads ecosystem.
These and other factors could harm our Lyft Ads business and the ability of our Lyft Ads business to achieve the return on investment we expect which could harm our business.
Use of artificial intelligence and machine learning may present additional risks, including risks associated with algorithm development or use, the data sets used, and/or a complex, developing regulatory environment.
We use artificial intelligence (“AI”) (including machine learning and automated decision making) for our internal work streams and productivity as well as in our platform, offerings, services and features, which may present additional risks, including risks inherent in its use. We are making investments in expanding our AI and agentic capabilities in our platform, offerings, services and features, including ongoing deployment and improvement of existing machine learning, AI and agentic technologies, as well as developing new features using AI technologies, including, for example, generative AI. AI algorithms or automated processing of data may be flawed and datasets may be insufficient or contain inaccurate or biased information, which can create discriminatory outcomes. AI algorithms may use third-party inputs with unclear intellectual property rights or interests. Intellectual property ownership and license rights, including copyright, of generative and other AI output, have not been fully interpreted by courts or fully addressed by federal or state regulations. The U.S. and other countries are considering comprehensive legal compliance frameworks specifically for AI, which is a trend that may increase now that the European Union (the “EU”) has adopted the first such framework in its Artificial Intelligence Act. Other government bodies in the U.S. and other countries also have proposed, and in certain cases enacted, laws and regulations imposing transparency and other compliance obligations for AI. Any failure or perceived failure by us or our service providers to comply with such requirements could have an adverse impact on our business. AI use or management by us or others, including decisions based on automated processing or profiling, inappropriate or controversial data practices, or insufficient disclosures regarding machine learning, automated decision making, and algorithms, have and could impair the operationality or acceptance of AI solutions or subject us to lawsuits, regulatory investigations or other harm, such as negative impacts to the value of our intellectual property or our brand. These deficiencies could also undermine the decisions, predictions or analysis AI applications produce, or lead to unintentional bias and discrimination, subjecting us to competitive harm, legal liability, and brand or reputational harm. The rapid evolution of AI may require us to allocate additional resources to help implement AI in order to minimize unintended or harmful impacts, and may also require us to make additional investments in the development of proprietary datasets, machine learning models or other systems, which may be costly.
If we are not able to successfully develop new offerings on our platform and enhance our existing offerings, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our ability to attract new qualified drivers and new riders, retain existing qualified drivers and existing riders and increase utilization of our offerings will depend in part on our ability to successfully create and introduce new offerings and to improve upon and enhance our existing offerings. As a result, we may introduce significant changes to our existing offerings or develop and introduce new and unproven offerings. If these new or enhanced offerings are unsuccessful, including as a result of any inability to obtain and maintain required permits or authorizations or other regulatory constraints or because they fail to generate sufficient return on our investments, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. Furthermore, new driver or rider demands regarding service or platform features, the availability of superior competitive offerings or a deterioration in the quality of our offerings or our ability to bring new or enhanced offerings to market quickly and efficiently could negatively affect the attractiveness of our platform and the economics of our business and require us to make substantial changes to and additional investments in our offerings or our business model. In addition, we
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frequently experiment with and test different offerings and marketing strategies, and some features we have launched in the past include Women+ Connect, Price Lock, Lyft Teen and our Lyft fee cap. If our experiments and tests are unsuccessful, or if the offerings and strategies we introduce based on the results of such experiments and tests do not perform as expected, our ability to attract new qualified drivers and new riders, retain existing qualified drivers and existing riders and maintain or increase utilization of our offerings may be adversely affected.
Developing and launching new offerings or enhancements to the existing offerings on our platform involves significant risks and uncertainties, including risks related to the reception of such offerings by existing and potential future drivers and riders, increases in operational complexity, new or different regulatory and compliance requirements, unanticipated delays or challenges in implementing such offerings or enhancements, increased strain on our operational and internal resources (including an impairment of our ability to accurately forecast rider demand and the number of drivers using our platform), our dependence on strategic commercial partnerships, and negative publicity in the event such new or enhanced offerings are perceived to be unsuccessful. We have scaled our business rapidly, and significant new initiatives have in the past resulted in, and in the future may result in, operational challenges affecting our business. In addition, developing and launching new offerings and enhancements to our existing offerings may involve significant up-front capital investments and such investments may not generate sufficient returns on investment. Further, from time to time we may reevaluate, discontinue and/or reduce these investments and decide to discontinue one or more offerings, which may lead to additional expenses and loss of riders and drivers. Any of the foregoing risks and challenges could negatively impact our ability to attract and retain qualified drivers and riders, our ability to increase utilization of our offerings and our visibility into expected results of operations, and could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, since we are focused on building our community and ecosystems for the long-term, our near-term results of operations may be impacted by our investments in the future.
If we are unable to successfully manage the complexities associated with our multimodal platform, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our expansion, either through our first party offerings or third-party offerings through our partnerships, into bike and scooter sharing, taxi, private hire vehicles, car sharing, and other modes of transportation and vehicle rental program has increased the complexity of our business. These new offerings have required us to develop new expertise and marketing and operational strategies, and have subjected us to new laws, regulations and risks. For example, our Wait & Save and Priority Pickup offerings, which enable riders to opt for a longer wait time for a lower fare or pay extra for prioritized matching, respectively, require ongoing maintenance and enhancement to efficiently balance driver supply with rider demand, as well as to manage pricing methodologies and logistics. Additionally, from time to time we reevaluate our offerings on our multimodal platform and have in the past decided and may again decide to discontinue or modify an offering or certain features. Such actions may negatively impact revenue in the short term and may not provide the benefits we expect in the long term. If we are unable to successfully manage the complexities associated with our expanding multimodal platform, including the effects our new and evolving offerings have on our existing business, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our metrics and estimates, including the key metrics included in this report, are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies in those metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.
We regularly review and may adjust our processes for calculating our metrics used to evaluate our growth, measure our performance and make strategic decisions. These metrics are calculated using internal company data and have not been evaluated by a third-party. Our metrics may differ from estimates published by third parties or from similarly titled metrics of our competitors due to differences in methodology or the assumptions on which we rely, and from time to time we have made adjustments to our processes for calculating our metrics in order to enhance accuracy, reflect newly available information, address errors in our methodologies, or other reasons, and we may make material adjustments in the future, which may result in changes to our metrics. The estimates and forecasts we disclose relating to the size and expected growth of our addressable market may prove to be inaccurate. Even if the markets in which we compete meet the size estimates and growth we have forecasted, our business could fail to grow at similar rates, if at all. Further, as our business develops, we may introduce, revise or cease reporting certain metrics if we change how we manage our business such that new metrics are appropriate, if we determine that revisions are required to accurately or appropriately measure our performance, or if one or more metrics no longer represents an effective way to evaluate our business. If investors or analysts do not consider our metrics to be accurate representations of our business or compare our metrics to third-party estimates or similarly titled metrics of our competitors or others in our industry that are not calculated on the same basis, or if we discover material inaccuracies in our metrics, then the trading price of our Class A common stock and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
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Any failure to offer high-quality user support may harm our relationships with users and could adversely affect our reputation, brand, business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our ability to attract and retain qualified drivers and riders is dependent in part on the ease and reliability of our offerings, including our ability to provide high-quality support, including both in-person and remote support. Users on our platform depend on our support organization to resolve any issues relating to our offerings, such as being overcharged for a ride, leaving something in a driver’s vehicle or reporting a safety incident. Our ability to provide effective and timely support is largely dependent on our ability to attract and retain service providers who are qualified to support users and sufficiently knowledgeable regarding our offerings. As we continue to grow our business and improve our offerings, we have faced and will continue to face challenges related to providing quality support services at scale. As we grow our international rider base and the number of international drivers on our platform, our support organization has faced and will continue to face additional challenges, including those associated with delivering support in languages other than English. Any failure to provide efficient and effective user support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality support, could adversely affect our reputation, brand, business, financial condition and results of operations.
Failure to deal effectively with fraud could harm our business.
From time to time, we incur losses from various types of fraud, including use of stolen or fraudulent credit card data, claims of unauthorized payments by a rider, attempted payments by riders with insufficient funds, fraud committed by drivers, riders or third parties, and fraud committed by riders in concert with drivers. Bad actors use increasingly sophisticated methods to engage in illegal activities, including those involving personal information, such as unauthorized use of another person’s identity, account information or payment information and unauthorized acquisition or use of credit or debit card details, bank account information and mobile phone numbers and accounts. Under current card payment practices, we may be liable for rides facilitated on our platform with fraudulent credit card data, even if the associated financial institution approved the credit card transaction. As we expand our business, particularly as we expand into new geographies and offerings, we will need to continue to expand our fraud detection systems. Despite measures that we have taken to detect and reduce the occurrence of fraudulent or other malicious activity on our platform, we cannot guarantee that any of our measures will be effective or will scale efficiently with our business. Our inability to adequately detect or prevent fraudulent transactions could harm our reputation or brand, result in litigation or regulatory action and lead to expenses that could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We have also incurred, and may in the future incur, losses from fraud and other misuse of our platform by drivers and riders. As an example of losses, we have previously and continue to experience reduced revenue from actual and alleged fraudulent rides fulfilled and miles traveled in connection with our Concierge offering. If we are unable to adequately anticipate and address such misuse either through increased controls, platform solutions or other means, our partner relationships, business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
If we fail to effectively manage our pricing methodologies, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
With the exception of certain taxi markets in Europe and rides for which variable fares apply, we quote a price to riders of our ridesharing offering before they request a ride. We earn platform and service fees from drivers. Service fees are a set fee per ride. Platform fees are variable fees, based upon the amount paid by a rider, which is generally based on an up-front quoted fare, less the amount earned by the driver (which is based on one or both of the following: (a) the actual time and distance for the trip, or (b) an up-front fare), the service fee, any applicable driver bonuses or incentives, and any pass-through amounts paid to drivers and third parties. For more information on platform fees, see our Terms of Service, including the Driver Addendum. As we do not control the driver’s actions at any point in the transaction to limit the time and distance for the trip, we take on risks related to the driver’s actions which may not be fully mitigated. Additionally, Shared Rides, a limited-scope offering for business-to-business partnerships in select markets, as well as for rides to and from the airport in one market, enables unrelated parties traveling along similar routes to generate a discounted fare at the cost of possibly longer travel times. The fare charged for the Shared Ride is decoupled from the payment made to the driver, and for some Shared Ride types, we do not adjust the driver payment based on the success or failure of a match. We may incur a loss from a transaction where an up-front quoted fare paid by a rider is less than the amount we committed to the driver. In addition, riders’ price sensitivity varies by geographic location, among other factors, and if we are unable to effectively account for such variability in our breadth of offerings or up-front prices, our ability to compete effectively in these locations could be adversely affected. From time to time we adjust our prices due to these factors, which may harm our results of operations. We also utilize certain AI and machine-learning technologies and algorithms to optimize our pricing and marketplace. Errors in AI, machine-learning technologies, algorithms, or the inputted data, including insufficient data sets or biased information, or the processing of the data may lead to discriminatory or other adverse outcomes. In addition to our ridesharing and Shared Ride offerings, we offer taxi and private hire vehicle options in certain international markets. For these offerings, we receive a set percentage of the fare. We may incur a loss from a transaction where driver or rider incentives are applied in excess of the commission we received on the fare. If we
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are unable to effectively manage our pricing methodologies in conjunction with our existing and future pricing and incentive programs and/or products, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our company culture has contributed to our success and if we cannot maintain this culture as we grow, our business could be harmed.
We believe that our company culture, which promotes authenticity, empathy and support for others, has been critical to our success. We face a number of challenges that may affect our ability to sustain our corporate culture, including:
•failure to identify, attract, reward and retain people in leadership positions in our organization who share and further our culture, values and mission;
•the size and geographic diversity of our workforce;
•our flexible workplace strategies, which enable certain of our employees to work in a hybrid workplace environment or remotely;
•departure from our internal policies and core values;
•competitive pressures to move in directions that may divert us from our mission, vision and values;
•the continued challenges of a rapidly-evolving industry;
•the impact of our cost reduction initiatives, including reductions in force and other actions we may take to drive operating efficiencies;
•the increasing need to develop expertise in new areas of business that affect us;
•perception of our treatment of employees or our response to employee sentiment related to political or social causes or actions of management;
•transitions among our executive leadership;
•the provision of employee benefits in a hybrid and remote work environment; and
•the integration of new personnel and businesses from acquisitions.
From time to time, we have undertaken workforce reductions in order to better align our operations with our strategic priorities, manage our cost structure (including in response to the effects of the macroeconomic environment and efforts to reduce operating expenses) or in connection with acquisitions. These actions may adversely affect employee morale, our culture and our ability to attract and retain personnel. If we are not able to maintain our culture, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We depend on our key personnel and other highly skilled personnel, and if we fail to attract, retain, motivate or integrate our personnel, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our success depends in part on the continued service of our senior management team, key technical employees and other highly skilled personnel and on our ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate, retain and integrate highly qualified personnel for all areas of our organization. From time to time, we have experienced transitions in executive leadership roles. We may not be successful in attracting and retaining qualified personnel to fulfill our current or future needs and actions we take in response to economic and other factors impacting our business may harm our reputation or impact our ability to recruit qualified personnel in the future. Also, all of our U.S.-based employees, including our management team, work for us on an at-will basis, and there is no assurance that any such employee will remain with us. Our competitors may be successful in recruiting and hiring members of our management team or other key employees, and it may be difficult for us to find suitable replacements on a timely basis, on competitive terms or at all. If we are unable to attract, integrate and retain the necessary personnel, particularly in critical areas of our business, we may not achieve our strategic goals.
We face intense competition for highly skilled personnel, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area where we have a substantial presence and need for highly skilled personnel. This competition has intensified in recent periods, and could continue to intensify for such personnel. To attract and retain top talent, we have had to offer, and we believe we will need to continue to offer competitive compensation and benefits packages. Job candidates and existing personnel often consider the value of the equity awards they receive in connection with their employment. Declines in our stock price and cost reduction or restructuring initiatives, which we have undertaken from time to time, may adversely affect our ability to attract and retain highly qualified personnel, and we may experience increased attrition or we may need to provide additional cash or equity compensation to retain employees. Many of our employees have received and may continue to receive significant proceeds from sales of our equity in the public markets, which may reduce their motivation to continue to work for us. We may need to invest significant amounts of cash and equity to attract and retain new employees and expend significant time and resources to identify, recruit, train and integrate such employees, and we may never realize returns on these investments. Additionally,
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changes in U.S. immigration policy may make it difficult to renew or obtain visas for any highly skilled personnel that we have hired or may hire in the future. Furthermore, our business may be materially adversely affected if legislative or administrative changes to immigration or visa laws and regulations impair our hiring processes or projects involving personnel who are not citizens of the country where the work is to be performed. If we are unable to effectively manage our hiring needs or successfully integrate new hires, and add or retain employees effectively, our efficiency, ability to meet forecasts and employee morale, productivity and retention could suffer, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our business could be adversely impacted by changes in the Internet and mobile device accessibility of users and unfavorable changes in or our failure to comply with existing or future laws governing the Internet and mobile devices.
Our business depends on users’ access to our platform via a mobile device and the Internet. AVs rely on connectivity to perform their services; as our business with AVs expands, our business will become even more dependent on reliable connectivity service. We may operate in jurisdictions that provide limited Internet connectivity, particularly as we expand internationally. Internet access and access to a mobile device are frequently provided by companies with significant market power that could take actions that degrade, disrupt or increase the cost of users’ ability to access our platform. In addition, the Internet infrastructure that we and users of our platform rely on in any particular geographic area may be unable to support the demands placed upon it. Any such failure in Internet or mobile device accessibility, even for a short period of time, could adversely affect our results of operations.
Moreover, we are subject to a number of laws and regulations specifically governing the Internet and mobile devices that are constantly evolving. Existing and future laws and regulations, or changes thereto, may impede the growth and availability of the Internet and online offerings, require us to change our business practices or raise compliance costs or other costs of doing business. These laws and regulations, which continue to evolve, cover taxation, privacy and data protection, information security, pricing, copyrights, distribution, mobile and other communications, advertising practices, consumer protections, web and app accessibility, antitrust and competition, the provision of online payment services, unencumbered Internet access to our offerings and the characteristics and quality of online offerings, among other things. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with any of these laws or regulations could result in damage to our reputation and brand, a loss in business and proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities or others, which could adversely impact our results of operations.
We rely on mobile operating systems and application marketplaces to make our apps available to the drivers and riders on our platform, and if we do not effectively operate with or receive favorable placements within such application marketplaces and maintain high rider reviews, our usage or brand recognition could decline and our business, financial results and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We depend in part on mobile operating systems, such as Android and iOS, and their respective application marketplaces to make our apps available to the drivers and riders on our platform. Any changes in such systems and application marketplaces that degrade the functionality of our apps or give preferential treatment to our competitors’ apps could adversely affect our platform’s usage on mobile devices. If such mobile operating systems or application marketplaces limit or prohibit us from making our apps available to drivers and riders, make changes that degrade the functionality of our apps, increase the cost of using our apps, impose terms of use unsatisfactory to us or modify their search or ratings algorithms in ways that are detrimental to us, or if our competitors’ placement in such mobile operating systems’ application marketplace is more prominent than the placement of our apps, overall growth in our rider or driver base could slow. Our apps have experienced fluctuations in the number of downloads in the past, and we anticipate similar fluctuations in the future. Any of the foregoing risks could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
As new mobile devices and mobile platforms are released, there is no guarantee that certain mobile devices will continue to support our platform or effectively roll out updates to our apps. Additionally, in order to deliver high-quality apps, we need to ensure that our offerings are designed to work effectively with a range of mobile technologies, systems, networks and standards. We may not be successful in developing or maintaining relationships with key participants in the mobile industry that enhance drivers’ and riders’ experience. If drivers or riders on our platform encounter any difficulty accessing or using our apps on their mobile devices or if we are unable to adapt to changes in popular mobile operating systems, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We depend on the interoperability of our platform across third-party applications and services that we do not control.
We have integrations with a variety of productivity, collaboration, travel, data management and security vendors. As our offerings expand and evolve, including to the extent we continue to develop autonomous technology or continue to expand into new geographies, we may have an increasing number of integrations with other third-party applications, products and services. Third-party applications, products and services are constantly evolving, and we may not be able to maintain or modify our platform to ensure its compatibility with third-party offerings following development changes. In addition, some of our competitors or technology partners may take actions which disrupt the interoperability of our platform with their own products
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or services, or exert strong business influence on our ability to, and the terms on which we operate and distribute our platform. As our respective products evolve, we expect the types and levels of competition to increase. Should any of our competitors or technology partners modify their products, standards or terms of use in a manner that degrades the functionality or performance of our platform or is otherwise unsatisfactory to us or gives preferential treatment to competitive products or services, our products, platform, business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Defects, errors or vulnerabilities in our applications, backend systems or other technology systems and those of third-party technology providers, or system failures and resulting interruptions in our availability or the availability of other systems and providers, could harm our reputation and brand and adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The software underlying our platform is highly complex and may contain undetected errors or vulnerabilities, some of which may only be discovered after the code has been released. We rely heavily on a software engineering practice known as “continuous deployment,” which refers to the frequent release of our software code, sometimes multiple times per day. This practice increases the risk that errors and vulnerabilities are present in the software code underlying our platform. The third-party software that we incorporate into our platform may also be subject to errors or vulnerability. Any errors or vulnerabilities discovered in our code or from third-party software after release could result in negative publicity, a loss of users or loss of revenue and access or other performance issues. Such vulnerabilities could also be exploited by malicious actors and result in exposure of data of users on our platform, or otherwise result in a security breach or incident. We may need to expend significant financial and development resources to analyze, correct, eliminate or work around errors or defects or to address and eliminate vulnerabilities. Any failure to timely and effectively resolve any such errors, defects or vulnerabilities could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations as well as negatively impact our reputation or brand.
Further, our systems, or those of third parties upon which we rely, may experience service interruptions or degradation because of hardware and software defects or malfunctions, distributed denial-of-service and other cyberattacks, human error, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, natural disasters, power losses, disruptions in telecommunications services, fraud, military or political conflicts, terrorist attacks, computer viruses, ransomware, malware or other events. Our systems also may be subject to break-ins, sabotage, theft and intentional acts of vandalism, including by our own employees. Some of our systems are not fully redundant and our disaster recovery planning may not be sufficient for all eventualities. Our business interruption insurance may not be sufficient to cover all of our losses that may result from interruptions in our service as a result of systems failures and similar events.
We have experienced and will likely continue to experience system failures and other events or conditions from time to time that interrupt the availability or reduce or affect the speed or functionality of our offerings. These events have resulted in, and similar future events could result in, losses of revenue or additional costs and expenses. A prolonged interruption in the availability or reduction in the availability, speed or other functionality of our offerings could adversely affect our business and reputation and could result in the loss of users. Moreover, to the extent that any system failure or similar event results in harm or losses to the users using our platform, we may make voluntary payments to compensate for such harm or the affected users could seek monetary recourse or contractual remedies from us for their losses and such claims, even if unsuccessful, would likely be time-consuming and costly for us to address.
Our platform contains third-party open source software components, and failure to comply with the terms of the underlying open source software licenses could restrict our ability to provide our offerings.
Our platform and offerings contain software modules licensed to us by third-party authors under “open source” licenses. Use and distribution of open source software may entail greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide support, warranties, indemnification or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the code. In addition, the public availability of such software may make it easier for others to compromise our platform and offerings.
Some open source licenses contain requirements that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon the type of open source software we use, or grant other licenses to our intellectual property. If we combine our proprietary software with open source software in a certain manner, we could, under certain open source licenses, be required to release the source code of our proprietary software to the public. This would allow our competitors to create similar offerings with lower development effort and time and ultimately could result in a loss of our competitive advantages. Alternatively, to avoid the public release of the affected portions of our source code, we could be required to expend substantial time and resources to re-engineer some or all of our software.
Although we have policies and processes for using open source software to avoid subjecting our platform and offerings to conditions we do not intend, the terms of many open source licenses have not been interpreted by U.S. or foreign courts, and there is a risk that these licenses could be construed in a way that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to provide or distribute our platform and offerings. From time to time, there have been claims challenging the ownership of open source software against companies that incorporate open source software into their solutions.
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As a result, we could be subject to lawsuits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software. Moreover, we cannot assure you that our processes for controlling our use of open source software in our platform will be effective. If we are held to have breached or failed to fully comply with all the terms and conditions of an open source software license, we could face infringement or other liability, or be required to seek costly licenses from third parties to continue providing our offerings on terms that are not economically feasible, to re-engineer our platform, to discontinue or delay the provision of our offerings if re-engineering could not be accomplished on a timely basis or to make generally available, in source code form, our proprietary code, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our presence outside the U.S. and our international expansion strategy will subject us to additional costs and risks and our plans may not be successful.
Since 2017, we have provided and expanded our offerings in international markets. In July 2025, we acquired Freenow, and in October 2025, we acquired TBR, which have expanded our offerings to markets where we did not previously have operations. In addition, we have several international offices that support our business. We also transact internationally to source and manufacture bikes and scooters and may increase our business in international regions in the future. Operating outside of the U.S., including expansion into livery and adding taxis, private hire vehicles and executive chauffeur services to our service offerings, requires significant management attention to oversee operations over a broad geographic area with varying cultural norms and customs, in addition to placing strain on our finance, analytics, human resources, compliance, legal, engineering and operations teams. We may incur significant operating expenses and may not be successful in our international expansion for a variety of reasons, including:
•recruiting and retaining talented and capable employees in foreign countries and maintaining our company culture across all of our offices;
•competition from local incumbents that better understand the local market, may market and operate more effectively and may enjoy greater local affinity or awareness;
•differing demand dynamics, which may make our offerings less successful;
•public health concerns or emergencies, such as natural disasters, pandemics and other highly communicable diseases or viruses;
•complying with varying laws and regulatory standards, including with respect to privacy, data protection, cybersecurity, tax, trade compliance, anti-bribery and anti-corruption, antitrust, securities, environmental, employment, insurance, and local regulatory restrictions and disclosure requirements;
•ineffective legal protection of our intellectual property rights in certain countries or theft or unauthorized use or publication of our intellectual property and other confidential business information;
•obtaining any required government approvals, licenses or other authorizations;
•varying levels of Internet and mobile technology adoption and infrastructure;
•currency exchange restrictions or costs and exchange rate fluctuations;
•political, economic, or social instability, which has caused disruptions in certain of our office locations, including in Ukraine as a result of the war;
•tax policies, treaties or laws that could have an unfavorable business impact; and
•limitations on the repatriation and investment of funds as well as foreign currency exchange restrictions.
Our limited experience in operating our business internationally increases the risk that our current and future expansion efforts may not be successful, which may result in shutting down certain international operations or closing certain international offices, which could result in additional costs and cash requirements, any of which may harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. As we have invested substantial time and resources to expand our operations internationally, if we are unable to manage these risks effectively, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
In addition, international expansion has increased our risks in complying with laws and standards in the U.S. and other jurisdictions, including with respect to customs, anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-fraud, political activity, export controls and trade and economic sanctions. Continued international expansion, including possible engagement with foreign government entities and organizations as customers for our rideshare, bikes and scooters offerings, taxi, private hire vehicles and executive chauffeur offerings, and emerging offerings may further increase such compliance risks. Our recent acquisitions further increase these risks. We cannot assure you that our employees and agents will not take actions in violation of applicable laws, for which we may be ultimately held responsible. In particular, any violation of applicable anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-fraud,
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lobbying, export controls, sanctions and similar laws could result in adverse media coverage, investigations, significant legal fees, loss of export privileges, severe criminal or civil penalties or suspension or debarment from U.S. government contracts, and/or substantial diversion of management’s attention, all of which could have an adverse effect on our reputation, brand, business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are currently subject to foreign currency exchange risk because our international revenue, as well as costs and expenses denominated in foreign currencies, expose us to the risk of fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates against the U.S. dollar. Freenow conducts all of its operations outside of the U.S. through its German parent company and TBR conducts a majority of its operations, including its U.S. business, through its United Kingdom (the “U.K.”) parent company. Freenow and TBR each have subsidiaries or affiliates, which also operate in their respective local currencies. As a result, our international operations will account for a more significant portion of our overall operations, and our exposure to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates will increase. Because our condensed consolidated financial statements will continue to be presented in U.S. dollars, the local currencies will be translated into U.S. dollars at the applicable exchange rates for inclusion in our condensed consolidated financial statements, thereby increasing the foreign exchange risk.
We may not realize the anticipated long-term stockholder value of our Share Repurchase Programs, and any failure to repurchase our Class A common stock after we have announced our intention to do so may negatively impact our stock price.
In February 2026, we authorized the 2026 Share Repurchase Program for the repurchase of up to $1.0 billion of our Class A common stock, in addition to the amounts that remained available under our 2025 Share Repurchase Program authorized in February 2025 (the “2025 Share Repurchase Program”) under which we were authorized to repurchase a total of $750 million of our Class A common stock. The 2026 Share Repurchase Program has $850.0 million remaining available for repurchases as of June 30, 2026, and the 2025 Share Repurchase Program was completed as of March 31, 2026. Under existing or any future share repurchase programs, we may make share repurchases through a variety of methods, including open share market purchases or privately negotiated transactions, in accordance with applicable federal securities laws. Our Share Repurchase Programs generally have no time limit, do not obligate us to repurchase any specific number of shares, and may be suspended at any time at our discretion and without prior notice. The timing and amount of repurchases, if any, will be subject to liquidity, stock price, business and market conditions, compliance with applicable legal requirements, such as Delaware surplus and solvency tests, management discretion, and other relevant factors. Any failure to repurchase stock after we have announced our intention to do so may negatively impact our reputation and investor confidence in us and may negatively impact our stock price. The existence of a share repurchase program could cause our stock price to be higher than it otherwise would be and could potentially reduce the market liquidity for our stock. Although our Share Repurchase Programs are intended to enhance long-term stockholder value, there is no assurance they will do so because the market price of our Class A common stock may decline below the levels at which we repurchased shares and short-term stock price fluctuations could reduce the effectiveness of our Share Repurchase Programs. Repurchasing our Class A common stock will reduce the amount of cash we have available to fund working capital, capital expenditures, strategic acquisitions or business opportunities, and other general corporate requirements, and we may fail to realize the anticipated long-term stockholder value of our Share Repurchase Programs.
Risks Related to General Economic Factors
A deterioration of general macroeconomic conditions could materially and adversely affect our business and financial results.
Our business and results of operations are subject to global economic conditions. Deteriorating macroeconomic conditions, including slower growth or recession, inflation and related high interest rates, increases to fuel and other energy costs or vehicle costs, changes in the labor market or decreases in consumer spending power or confidence, are likely to result in decreased discretionary spending and reduced demand for our platform. In addition, changes in macroeconomic conditions due to actual or proposed tariff increases could change consumer behavior and adversely affect rider demand for our platform, advertiser demand for Lyft Ads, and costs related to our operations, including but not limited to costs related to our bikes and scooters. Further, changes in corporate spending, including cost-cuts and layoffs, may adversely impact business travel, commuting and other business-related expenditures and impact our Lyft Business customers. In addition, uncertainty and volatility in the banking and financial services sectors, inflation and high interest rates, increased fuel and other energy costs, increased labor and benefits costs and increased insurance costs have, and may continue to, put pressure on economic conditions, which has led, and could lead, to greater operating expenses. For example, inflation has increased in recent years and is expected to further increase medical costs and vehicle repair costs, including increased prices of new and used vehicle parts, which has resulted in increases in our insurance costs. Similarly, these factors, as well as increased fuel costs, increase our costs as well as costs for drivers on our platform. Many of these factors are out of our control and make it difficult to accurately forecast Gross Bookings, revenues and operating results, particularly in the long-term, and could negatively affect our ability to meet our target operating performance and our (and our strategic partners’) ability to make decisions about future investments
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and strategies. Further, we may need to make changes to our business to respond to these conditions and be able to compete effectively. For example, we have adjusted our pricing in response to competitive pressures caused by changes in our marketplace, which has in the past contributed to a decline in our revenue and may cause a decline in revenue in future quarters. An economic downturn resulting in a prolonged recessionary period would likely have a further adverse effect on our revenue, financial condition and results of operations.
Our business could be adversely affected by natural disasters, public health crises, political crises, or other unexpected events.
A significant natural disaster, such as an earthquake, fire, hurricane, tornado, flood or significant power outage, could disrupt our operations, mobile networks, the Internet or the operations of our third-party technology providers. In particular, our corporate headquarters are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, a region known for seismic activity and increasingly for fires. The impact of climate change may increase these risks. In addition, any public health crises or pandemics, other epidemics, political crises, such as terrorist attacks, war and other political or social instability and other geopolitical developments, or other catastrophic events, whether in the U.S. or abroad, could adversely affect our operations or the economy as a whole. For example, we have an office and employees in Ukraine that have been and may continue to be adversely affected by the current war in the region, including displacement of our employees. The impact of any natural disaster, act of terrorism or other disruption to us or our third-party providers’ abilities could result in driver supply and rider demand imbalances, decreased demand for our offerings or a delay in the provision of our offerings, or increase our costs and operating expenses, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. All of the aforementioned risks may be further increased if our disaster recovery plans prove to be inadequate.
Risks Related to Regulatory and Legal Factors
Our business is subject to a wide range of laws and regulations, many of which are evolving, and failure to comply with such laws and regulations could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to a wide variety of laws in the U.S. and other jurisdictions in which we operate. Laws, regulations and standards governing issues such as TNCs, livery, taxis, vehicles for hire, public companies, ridesharing, worker classification, labor and employment, anti-discrimination, payments, gift cards, whistleblowing and worker confidentiality obligations, product liability, defects, recalls, personal injury, marketing, advertising, text messaging, subscription services, intellectual property, AI, securities, consumer protection, taxation, privacy, data security, competition, unionizing and collective action, antitrust, arbitration agreements and class action waiver provisions, terms of service, web and mobile application accessibility, AVs, bike and scooter sharing, insurance, vehicle rentals, money transmittal, non-emergency medical transportation, healthcare fraud, waste, and abuse, environmental health and safety, greenhouse gas emissions and EVs, background checks, public health, anti-corruption, anti-bribery, political contributions, lobbying, import and export restrictions, trade and economic sanctions, foreign ownership and investment, foreign exchange controls and delivery of goods are often complex and subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity. As a result, their application in practice may change or develop over time through judicial decisions or as new guidance or interpretations are provided by regulatory and governing bodies, such as federal, state and local administrative agencies.
The ridesharing industry, bikes and scooters sharing industry and our business model are relatively nascent and rapidly evolving. We have been proactively working with federal, state and local governments and regulatory bodies to ensure that our ridesharing marketplace and other offerings are available broadly in North America and Europe. New laws and regulations and changes to existing laws and regulations continue to be adopted, implemented and interpreted in response to our industry and related technologies. As we expand our business into new markets or introduce new offerings into existing markets, regulatory bodies or courts may claim that we or users on our platform are subject to additional requirements, or that we are prohibited from conducting our business in certain jurisdictions, or that users on our platform are prohibited from using our platform, either generally or with respect to certain offerings. Certain jurisdictions and governmental entities, including airports, require us to obtain permits, pay fees or comply with certain reporting and other operational requirements to provide our ridesharing, bike and scooter sharing, and Flexdrive offerings. These jurisdictions and governmental entities may reject our applications for permits, revoke or suspend existing or deny renewals of permits to operate, delay our ability to operate, increase their fees, charge new types of fees, or impose fines and penalties, including as a result of errors in, or failures to comply with, reporting or other requirements related to our product offerings. Any of the foregoing actions by these jurisdictions and governmental entities could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Recent financial, political and other events have increased the level of regulatory scrutiny on larger companies, technology companies in general and companies engaged in dealings with independent contractors, such as ridesharing and delivery companies. Regulatory bodies may enact new laws or promulgate new regulations that are adverse to our business, or, due to changes in our operations and structure or partner relationships as a result of changes in the market or otherwise, they may view matters or interpret laws and regulations differently than they have in the past or in a manner adverse to our business. See the risk factor entitled “Challenges to contractor classification of drivers that use our platform may have adverse business,
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financial, tax, legal and other consequences to our business.” Such regulatory scrutiny or action may create different or conflicting obligations from one jurisdiction to another, and may have a negative outcome that could adversely affect our business, operations, financial condition, and results of operations. Additionally, we have invested and from time to time we will continue to invest resources in an attempt to influence or challenge legislation and other regulatory matters pertinent to our operations, particularly those related to the ridesharing industry, which may negatively impact the legal and administrative proceedings challenging the classification of drivers on our platform as independent contractors if we are unsuccessful or lead to additional costs and expenses even if we are successful. These activities may not be successful, and any negative outcomes could adversely affect our business, operations, financial condition and results of operations.
The ridesharing industry is increasingly regulated. We have been subject to intense regulatory pressure from state, provincial and municipal regulatory authorities, and a number of them have imposed limitations on ridesharing and bike and scooter sharing, and certain jurisdictions have adopted rules governing minimum driver earnings for ridesharing platforms. Other jurisdictions in which we currently operate or may want to operate have and could continue to consider legislation regulating driver earnings and engagement. Recently, the City of New York enacted a law pertaining to driver deactivations that could undermine our safety initiatives and our contractual relationships with users on our platform. We initiated a lawsuit against the City of New York in federal court to challenge this law on constitutional grounds and a preliminary injunction has been granted temporarily blocking the City of New York from enforcing the law. We are continuing to pursue a permanent injunction. We could also face similar regulatory restrictions from foreign regulators as we expand operations internationally, particularly in areas where we face competition from local incumbents. In addition, we face new regulations targeted at artificial intelligence and automated decision making technologies, which may impose operational and regulatory requirements relating to our technology. Adverse changes in laws or regulations at all levels of government or bans on or material limitations to our offerings could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Certain areas within our Lyft Business offerings also operate in regulated industries. For example, our healthcare business subjects us to laws and regulations (e.g., Medicaid, Medicare) that were adopted prior to the advent of the rideshare industry and that do not contemplate or address the unique issues the ridesharing industry faces. Failing to comply with such requirements could lead to our loss of Medicaid provider enrollment status, exclusion from participation in federal and state healthcare programs, or fines. In addition, certain of Lyft Business’ customers may be government entities or receive government funding, which exposes us to risks such as the government’s ability to unilaterally terminate contracts, the public sector’s budgetary cycles and funding authorization, and the government’s administrative and investigatory processes. Despite our efforts to comply with applicable laws, regulations and other obligations relating to our offerings, it is possible that our practices, offerings or platform could be inconsistent with, or fail or be alleged to fail to meet all requirements of, such laws, regulations or obligations. Our failure, or the failure by our third-party providers, customers, or partners, to comply with applicable laws or regulations or any other obligations relating to our Lyft Business offerings could harm our reputation and brand, discourage new and existing customers, drivers, and riders from using our platform, lead to refunds of ride fares or result in fines or proceedings by governmental agencies or private claims and litigation, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our success, or perceived success, and increased visibility has driven, and may continue to drive, some businesses that perceive our business model negatively to raise their concerns to local policymakers and regulators. These businesses and their trade association groups or other organizations have and may continue to take actions and employ significant resources to shape the legal and regulatory regimes in jurisdictions where we may have, or seek to have, a market presence in an effort to change such legal and regulatory regimes in ways intended to adversely affect or impede our business and the ability of drivers and riders to utilize our platform.
Any of the foregoing risks could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Challenges to contractor classification of drivers that use our platform may have adverse business, financial, tax, legal and other consequences to our business.
We are regularly subject to claims, lawsuits, arbitration proceedings, administrative actions, government investigations and other legal and regulatory proceedings at the federal, state and municipal levels challenging the classification of drivers on our platform as independent contractors. The tests governing whether a driver is an independent contractor or an employee vary by governing law and are typically highly fact sensitive. Laws and regulations that govern the status and misclassification of independent contractors are subject to changes and divergent interpretations by various authorities which can create uncertainty and unpredictability for us. For more information regarding the litigation in which we have been involved, see the “Legal Proceedings” subheading in Note 10 “Commitments and Contingencies” to the condensed consolidated financial statements included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (“USDOL”) issued a final rule (“2024 rule”) containing interpretive guidance for the classification of workers based on a multi-factor “economic realities” test to determine if a worker was properly classified as an independent contractor. On February 27, 2026, the USDOL proposed a new independent contractor rule (replacing the 2024 rule) focusing on two factors - right of control and opportunity for profit and loss - of the “economic realities” test. We expect the USDOL to publish the final rule in 2026.
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We continue to maintain that drivers on our platform are not employees in such legal and administrative proceedings and intend to continue to defend ourselves vigorously in these matters, as applicable, but our arguments may ultimately be unsuccessful. A determination in, resolution of, or settlement of, any legal proceeding, whether we are party to such legal proceeding or not, related to driver classification matters, could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations, including as a result of:
•monetary exposure arising from or relating to alleged failure to withhold and remit taxes, unpaid wages and wage and hour laws and requirements (such as those pertaining to failure to pay minimum wage and overtime, or to provide required breaks and wage statements), unlawful deductions, expense reimbursement, restitution, statutory and punitive damages, penalties, including related to the California Private Attorneys General Act, and government fines;
•injunctions prohibiting continuance of existing business practices;
•claims for employee benefits, social security, workers’ compensation and unemployment;
•claims of discrimination, harassment and retaliation under civil rights laws;
•claims under new or existing laws pertaining to unionizing, collective bargaining and other concerted activity (for example, Massachusetts Question 3 and California AB 1340, which set up a sectoral bargaining framework between drivers and rideshare companies);
•other claims, charges or other proceedings under laws and regulations applicable to employers and employees, including risks relating to allegations of joint employer liability or agency liability; and
•harm to our reputation and brand.
We have been involved in numerous legal proceedings related to driver classification. We are currently involved in litigation brought by the government agencies, including the California Attorney General, as well as a number of putative class actions, several representative actions brought, for example, pursuant to California’s Private Attorneys General Act, several multi-plaintiff actions and thousands of individual claims, including those brought in arbitration or compelled pursuant to our Terms of Service to arbitration, challenging the classification of drivers on our platform as independent contractors. We are also involved in administrative audits related to driver classification in multiple jurisdictions. For more information about these types of legal proceedings, please see the “Legal Proceedings” subheading in Note 10 “Commitments and Contingencies” to the condensed consolidated financial statements included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
In addition to the harms listed above, in the event of a determination in, resolution of, or settlement of, any legal proceeding related to driver classification matters, we may decide to, or be required to, significantly alter our existing business model and/or operations (including suspending or ceasing operations in impacted jurisdictions), our costs may increase, and we may experience adverse impacts on our ability to add qualified drivers to our platform and grow our business, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations and our ability to achieve or maintain profitability in the future.
In addition, with the breadth of our geographic scope, the classification of our drivers that utilize our platform as independent contractors may be subject to challenge in non-US jurisdictions, especially following our recent acquisitions. For example, the EU’s Platform Work Directive, which entered into force in December 2024, requires EU member states to transpose its requirements to their national laws, including enacting new national laws for determining worker classification of platform workers, and may involve differing implementation by the various member states. Such EU-wide legislative reforms may adversely affect our ability to operate our current independent contractor model within the European Economic Area.
Claims by others that we infringed their proprietary technology or other intellectual property rights could harm our business.
Companies in the markets in which we operate are frequently subject to litigation based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. In addition, certain companies and rights holders seek to enforce and monetize patents or other intellectual property rights they own, have purchased or otherwise obtained. As our business continues to evolve, the possibility of intellectual property rights claims against us grows based on the following: increase in public profile, increases in the number of competitors in our markets, our continued development of new technologies, new products and services, and new intellectual property, as well as potential international expansion. In addition, various products and services of ours host, integrate, or otherwise rely on third-party content or intellectual property, including our Lyft Ads efforts, which provides a platform for third-party promotional advertisements, and our marketing and brand journalism efforts. From time to time third parties may assert, and in the past have asserted, claims of infringement of intellectual property rights against us. See the “Legal Proceedings” subheading in Note 10 “Commitments and Contingencies” to the condensed consolidated financial statements included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for additional information about these types of legal proceedings. In addition, third parties have sent us correspondence regarding various allegations of intellectual property infringement and, in some instances, have sought to initiate licensing discussions. Although we believe that we have
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meritorious defenses, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in defending against these allegations or reaching a business resolution that is satisfactory to us. Our competitors and others may now and in the future have significantly larger and more mature patent portfolios than us. In addition, we have faced, and may again in the future face, litigation involving patent holding companies or other adverse patent owners who have no relevant product or service revenue and against whom our own patents may therefore provide little or no deterrence or protection. Many potential litigants, including some of our competitors and patent-holding companies, have the ability to dedicate substantial resources to assert their intellectual property rights. Any claim of infringement by a third party, even those without merit, could cause us to incur substantial costs defending against the claim, could distract our management from our business and could require us to cease use of such intellectual property. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, we risk compromising our confidential information during this type of litigation. We may be required to pay substantial damages, royalties or other fees in connection with a claimant securing a judgment against us, we may be subject to an injunction or other restrictions that prevent us from using or distributing our intellectual property, or we may agree to a settlement that prevents us from distributing our offerings or a portion thereof, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
With respect to any intellectual property rights claim, we may have to seek out a license to continue operations found to be in violation of such rights, which may not be available on favorable or commercially reasonable terms and may significantly increase our operating expenses. Some licenses may be non-exclusive, and therefore our competitors may have access to the same technology licensed to us. If a third-party does not offer us a license to its intellectual property on reasonable terms, or at all, we may be required to develop alternative, non-infringing technology or other intellectual property, which could require significant time (during which we would be unable to continue to offer our affected offerings), effort and expense and may ultimately not be successful. Any of these events could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Failure to protect or enforce our intellectual property rights could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our success is dependent in part upon protecting our intellectual property rights and technology (such as code, information, data, processes and other forms of information, knowhow and technology), or “intellectual property,” and as we grow, we expect to continue to develop intellectual property that is important for our existing or future business. We rely on a combination of patents, copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade dress, trade secret laws and contractual restrictions to establish and protect our intellectual property. However, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property may not be sufficient or effective, and may vary by jurisdiction. Even if we do detect violations, we may need to engage in litigation to enforce our rights. Any enforcement efforts we undertake, including litigation, could be time-consuming and expensive and could divert management attention. While we take precautions designed to protect our intellectual property, it may still be possible for competitors and other unauthorized third parties to copy our technology, reverse engineer our data and use our proprietary information to create or enhance competing solutions and services, which could adversely affect our position in our rapidly evolving and highly competitive industry. Some license provisions that protect against unauthorized use, copying, transfer and disclosure of our technology may be unenforceable under the laws of certain jurisdictions and foreign countries. The laws of some countries do not provide the same level of protection of our intellectual property as do the laws of the U.S. and effective intellectual property protections may not be available or may be limited in foreign countries. Our domestic and international intellectual property protection and enforcement strategy is influenced by many considerations including costs, where we have business operations, where we might have business operations in the future, legal protections available in a specific jurisdiction, and/or other strategic considerations. As such, we do not have identical or analogous intellectual property protection in all jurisdictions, which could risk freedom to operate in certain jurisdictions. As we expand our international activities, our exposure to unauthorized use, copying, transfer and disclosure of proprietary information will likely increase. We may need to expend additional resources to protect, enforce or defend our intellectual property rights domestically or internationally, which could impair our business or adversely affect our domestic or international operations. We enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants and enter into confidentiality agreements with our third-party providers and strategic partners. We cannot assure you that these agreements will be effective in controlling access to, and use and distribution of, our platform and proprietary information. Further, these agreements may not prevent our competitors from independently developing technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our offerings. Competitors and other third parties may also attempt to access, aggregate, and/or reverse engineer our data which would compromise our trade secrets and other rights. We also enter into strategic partnerships, joint development and other similar agreements with third parties where intellectual property arising from such partnerships may be jointly-owned or may be transferred or licensed to the counterparty. Such arrangements may limit our ability to protect, maintain, enforce or commercialize such intellectual property rights, including requiring agreement with or payment to our joint development partners before protecting, maintaining, licensing or initiating enforcement of such intellectual property rights, and may allow such joint development partners to register, maintain, enforce or license such intellectual property rights in a manner that may affect the value of the jointly-owned intellectual property or our ability to compete in the market.
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We may be required to spend significant resources in order to monitor and protect our intellectual property rights, and some violations may be difficult or impossible to detect. Litigation to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time-consuming and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Our inability to protect our intellectual property and proprietary technology against unauthorized copying or use, as well as any costly litigation or diversion of our management’s attention and resources, could impair the functionality of our platform, delay introductions of enhancements to our platform, result in our substituting inferior or more costly technologies into our platform or harm our reputation or brand. In addition, we may be required to license additional technology from third parties to develop and market new offerings or platform features, which may not be on commercially reasonable terms or at all and could adversely affect our ability to compete.
Our industry has also been subject to attempts to steal intellectual property, including by foreign actors. We, along with others in our industry, have been the target of attempted thefts of our intellectual property and may be subject to such attempts in the future. Although we take measures to protect our property, if we are unable to prevent the theft of our intellectual property or its exploitation, the value of our investments may be undermined and our business, financial condition and results of operations may be negatively impacted.
Changes in laws or regulations relating to privacy, data protection or the protection or transfer of personal data, or any actual or perceived failure by us to comply with such laws and regulations or any other obligations relating to privacy, data protection or the protection or transfer of personal data, could adversely affect our business.
We receive, transmit, store and otherwise process a large volume of personal information and other data relating to users on our platform, as well as other individuals such as our employees. Numerous local, municipal, state, federal and international laws and regulations address privacy, data protection and the collection, storing, sharing, use, disclosure and other processing of certain data. The scope of these laws and regulations may continually change, through new legislation, amendments to existing legislation and changes in enforcement, and may be inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another. New or modified laws or regulations relating to privacy, data protection or information security, particularly such laws or regulations that require enhanced protection of data or new data retention, transfer or disclosure obligations, could greatly increase the cost of providing our offerings, require significant changes to our operations and our data processing practices and policies, and require us to incur additional compliance-related costs and expenses, and may prevent us from providing certain offerings in certain jurisdictions. In addition, our Lyft Ads efforts provide third-party promotional advertisements, including those that may be personalized to users. Current law and regulations, and potential changes in the law or regulatory landscape, limit and/or prohibit activities, and could further limit and/or prohibit activities in regard to any current and new offerings we undertake.
Further, as we continue to expand our offerings and user base, and as we expand into new geographies, such as in connection with our acquisition of Freenow, we will become subject to additional laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection and information security. For example, Freenow operates in the EU and in the U.K. Examples of laws applicable to Freenow in the EU and the U.K. are the EU General Data Protection Regulation and the U.K.’s Data Protection Act and General Data Protection Regulation, which apply to the processing of personal data in the EU and U.K., respectively. Each of these jurisdictions’ data protection regimes provides for substantial obligations applicable to the collection, use, transfer (including to the U.S.) and processing of other personal data and imposes significant penalties for noncompliance. The EU also has adopted numerous laws and regulations relating to cybersecurity that may apply to certain Lyft subsidiaries. Expansion of our offerings may include partnerships and data sharing or transfers that could be subject to Title 28 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Part 202, which prohibits or restricts certain transactions that involve bulk transfer of certain U.S. data to countries of concern and imposes significant penalties for noncompliance.
Additionally, the use of our Concierge and Lyft Pass for Public Funding offerings by healthcare customers, such as healthcare providers, health plans and transportation brokers, subject us to compliance requirements under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) regarding the use, collection, security, storage and disclosure of individuals’ protected health information (“PHI”). We must also comply with HIPAA as we use and disclose the PHI of riders in our capacity as a Business Associate of Covered Entities or of other Business Associates. Compliance obligations under HIPAA include privacy, security and breach notification obligations and could subject us to increased liability and significant civil penalties for any unauthorized uses or disclosures of PHI determined to be a “breach.”
Additionally, we have incurred, and expect to continue to incur, significant expenses in our efforts to comply with privacy, data protection and information security standards imposed by law, regulation or contractual obligations. In particular, with numerous laws and regulations imposing new and relatively burdensome obligations, and with substantial uncertainty over their interpretation and application, we may face challenges in addressing their requirements and making necessary changes to our policies and practices and may incur significant costs and expenses in our efforts to do so. As we consider expansion of business offerings and markets, and as laws and regulations change, we expect to incur additional costs related to privacy, data protection and information security standards and protocols imposed by laws, regulations, industry standards or contractual
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obligations related to such offerings and face additional risks that such expansion could be inconsistent with, or fail or be alleged to fail to meet, all requirements of such laws, regulations or obligations.
Despite our efforts to comply with applicable laws, regulations and other obligations relating to privacy, data protection and information security, it is possible that our practices, offerings or platform could be inconsistent with, or fail or be alleged to fail to meet all requirements of, such laws, regulations or obligations. Our failure, or the failure by our third-party providers or partners, to comply with applicable laws, regulations or other actual or asserted obligations relating to privacy, data protection or information security, or any compromise of security that results in unauthorized access to, or unauthorized loss, unavailability, corruption, use, release or other processing of personal information or other driver or rider data, or the perception that any of the foregoing types of failure or compromise has occurred, could damage our reputation, discourage new and existing drivers and riders from using our platform or result in fines or proceedings by governmental agencies and private claims and litigation, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, the perception of concerns relating to privacy, data protection or information security, whether or not valid, may harm our reputation and brand and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are regularly subject to claims, lawsuits, government and regulatory investigations and other proceedings that may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are regularly subject to claims, lawsuits, arbitration proceedings, government and regulatory investigations and other legal and regulatory proceedings, and in some situations we have received subpoenas and requests for documents and information, in the ordinary course of business, including those involving personal injury, property damage, worker classification, driver earnings, labor and employment, anti-discrimination, commercial disputes, antitrust, competition, consumer complaints (e.g., claims brought under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 or other laws), intellectual property disputes, compliance with regulatory requirements, securities laws, and other matters, and we may become subject to additional types of claims, lawsuits, government investigations and legal or regulatory proceedings as our business grows and as we deploy new offerings, including proceedings related to product liability or our acquisitions, data privacy, advertising, securities issuances or business practices. We are also regularly subject to claims, lawsuits, arbitration proceedings, government investigations and other legal and regulatory proceedings seeking to hold us liable for the actions of independent contractor drivers on our platform. For more information regarding these types of legal proceedings, please see the “Legal Proceedings” subheading in Note 10 “Commitments and Contingencies” to the condensed consolidated financial statements included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
The results of any such claims, lawsuits, arbitration proceedings, government investigations or other legal or regulatory proceedings cannot be predicted with certainty. Any claims against us, whether meritorious or not, could be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, be harmful to our reputation, require significant management attention and divert significant resources. Determining reserves for our pending litigation is a complex and fact-intensive process that requires significant subjective judgment and speculation. It is possible that a resolution of one or more such proceedings could result in substantial damages, settlement costs, fines and penalties that could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. These proceedings could also result in harm to our reputation and brand, sanctions, consent decrees, injunctions or other orders requiring a change in our business practices. Any of these consequences could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Furthermore, under certain circumstances, we have contractual and other legal obligations to indemnify and to incur legal expenses on behalf of our business, commercial, and government partners and current and former directors and officers.
A determination in, resolution of, or settlement of, any legal proceeding, whether we are party to such legal proceeding or not, that involves our industry, could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, a determination related to driver classification matters, whether we are party to such determination or not, could cause us to incur significant expenses or require substantial changes to our business model.
In addition, we regularly include arbitration provisions in our Terms of Service with the drivers and riders and other parties on our platform. These provisions are intended to streamline the litigation process for all parties involved, as arbitration can in some cases be faster and less costly than litigating disputes in state or federal court. However, arbitration may become more costly for us or the volume of arbitration may increase and become burdensome, and the use of arbitration provisions may subject us to certain risks to our reputation and brand, as these provisions have been the subject of increasing public scrutiny. In order to minimize these risks to our reputation and brand, we have in the past and may continue to limit our use of arbitration provisions or be required to do so in a legal or regulatory proceeding, either of which could increase our litigation costs and exposure. For example, effective May 2018, we ended mandatory arbitration of sexual misconduct claims by users and employees.
Further, with the potential for conflicting rules regarding the scope and enforceability of arbitration on a state-by-state basis, as well as between state and federal law or between U.S. and foreign law, there is a risk that some or all of our arbitration provisions could be subject to challenge or may need to be revised to exempt certain categories of protection. If our arbitration
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agreements were found to be unenforceable, in whole or in part, or specific claims are required to be exempted from arbitration, we could experience an increase in our costs to litigate disputes and the time involved in resolving such disputes, and we could face increased exposure to potentially costly lawsuits, each of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If we fail to maintain an effective system of disclosure controls or internal control over financial reporting, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations could be impaired.
As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”), and the listing standards of the Nasdaq Global Select Market. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. In order to maintain and improve the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, we have expended, and anticipate that we will continue to expend, significant resources, including accounting-related costs and significant management oversight. If any of our controls and systems do not perform as expected, we may experience deficiencies in our controls and we may not be able to meet our financial reporting obligations.
Our current controls and any new controls that we develop may become inadequate because of changes in the conditions in our business, including increased complexity resulting from any international expansion, flexible work arrangements, new offerings on our platform or from strategic transactions. Further, weaknesses or deficiencies in our disclosure controls or our internal control over financial reporting have been discovered in the past, and other weaknesses or deficiencies may be discovered in the future. Our disclosure controls and procedures or our internal control over financial reporting are not expected to prevent all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Due to inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.
Any failure to develop or maintain effective controls, or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement, could harm our results of operations or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations and may result in a restatement of our financial statements for prior periods. Furthermore, ineffective controls could negatively impact management’s assessment of our control environment. Any failure to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could also adversely affect the results of periodic management evaluations and annual independent registered public accounting firm attestation reports regarding the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting that we are required to include in our periodic reports. Ineffective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting could also cause errors in our reporting. We may also be subject to public scrutiny, regulatory inquiries and legal proceedings if such failure results in an error in our financial reporting. In addition, if we are unable to continue to meet these requirements, we may not be able to remain listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
Our independent registered public accounting firm may issue a report that is adverse in the event it is not satisfied with the level at which our internal control over financial reporting is documented, designed or operating. Any failure to maintain effective disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations and could cause a decline in the market price of our Class A common stock.
Changes in U.S. and foreign tax laws could have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, results of operations or financial conditions.
We are subject to tax laws, regulations, and policies of the U.S. federal, state, and local governments and of comparable taxing authorities in foreign jurisdictions. As various levels of governments and international organizations become increasingly focused on tax reform, changes in tax laws, as well as other factors, could cause us to experience fluctuations in our tax obligations and effective tax rates and otherwise adversely affect our tax positions and/or our tax liabilities. For example, the U.S. passed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, which introduced a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks that has impacted us in connection with the settlements of capped call transactions and has increased the cost to us of share repurchases, which could reduce the number of shares we repurchase. Further, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (the “OECD”) released Pillar Two model rules defining a 15% global minimum tax for large multinational companies. While the Pillar Two Framework has been or is expected to be implemented in the tax laws of many jurisdictions, the OECD has announced a side-by-side elective safe harbor that would exempt electing U.S.-parented multinationals from certain provisions of Pillar Two for fiscal years beginning on or after January 1, 2026. However, this safe harbor does not provide an exemption from the “qualified domestic minimum top-up taxes” that many countries have enacted or begun the process of enacting into their domestic laws based on Pillar Two proposals. Any of these or other developments or changes in tax laws or rulings in jurisdictions in which we operate could adversely affect our effective tax rate and our operating results.
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Taxing authorities may successfully assert that we should have collected or in the future should collect sales and use, gross receipts, value added or similar taxes and may successfully impose additional obligations on us, and any such assessments or obligations could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The application of indirect taxes, such as payroll tax, sales and use tax, value-added tax, goods and services tax, business tax and gross receipts tax, to businesses like ours and to drivers is a complex and evolving issue. Significant judgment is required on an ongoing basis to evaluate applicable tax obligations, and as a result, amounts recorded are estimates and are subject to adjustments. Tax authorities have challenged and may continue to challenge our calculation, reporting, or collection of such taxes, and may require us or our drivers to collect taxes in jurisdictions in which we do not currently do so. For example, we have an ongoing dispute with the City and County of San Francisco (“San Francisco”) regarding the application of gross receipts taxes to businesses like ours. For more information regarding this matter, please see the “Legal Proceedings” subheading in Note 10 “Commitments and Contingencies” to the condensed consolidated financial statements included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
In addition, local governments are increasingly looking for ways to increase revenue, which has resulted in tax reform and other legislative action to increase tax revenue, including through indirect taxes and fees. For example, it is becoming more common for local governments to impose per trip taxes or fees specifically on TNC rides.
Although we have reserved for potential payments of possible past tax liabilities in our condensed consolidated financial statements, if these liabilities exceed such reserves, our financial condition could be harmed.
Additionally, one or more states, localities or other taxing jurisdictions may seek to impose additional reporting, record-keeping or indirect tax collection obligations on businesses like ours. For example, taxing authorities in the U.S. and other countries have identified e-commerce platforms as a means to calculate, collect, and remit indirect taxes for transactions taking place over the Internet, and are considering related legislation. New legislation may require us or drivers to incur substantial costs in order to comply, including costs associated with tax calculation, collection, remittance and audit requirements, which could discourage drivers and riders from utilizing our offerings and make our offerings less attractive and could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Operating as a public company requires us to incur substantial costs and requires substantial management attention.
As a public company, we incur substantial legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. For example, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the applicable requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the rules and regulations of the SEC and the listing standards of the Nasdaq Stock Market. For example, the Exchange Act requires, among other things, that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business, financial condition and results of operations. We are also required to maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. Compliance with these rules and regulations has increased and will continue to increase our legal and financial compliance costs, and increase demand on our systems. In addition, as a public company, we have in the past and may in the future be subject to stockholder activism, which can lead to substantial additional costs, distract management and impact the manner in which we operate our business. Furthermore, if any issues in complying with those requirements are identified, we may incur additional costs rectifying those or new issues, and the existence of these issues could adversely affect our reputation or investor perceptions of it.
Climate-related factors may have a long-term impact on our business.
We have established environmental programs, such as requiring our suppliers to ensure the efficient use of raw materials, water, and energy resources via our Supplier Code of Conduct, and we recognize that there are inherent climate-related risks wherever business is conducted. For example, our San Francisco, California headquarters is projected to be vulnerable to future water scarcity and sea level rise due to climate change, as well as increasing frequency of other climate-related events including wildfires and associated power shut-offs. Similar risks may exist in other regions as well. Climate-related events, including the increasing frequency of extreme weather events and their impact on critical infrastructure in the U.S. and elsewhere, have the potential to disrupt our business, including our available supply of drivers, our third-party suppliers, and the business of our customers, and may cause us to experience higher attrition, losses and additional costs to maintain or resume operations. Further, climate change is expected to increase the frequency and severity of certain such events, as well as contribute to chronic changes (such as changes to weather patterns) that may also impact the behaviors of drivers and riders or infrastructure on which we rely.
Additionally, we are or may become subject to emerging climate-related policies such as California’s Clean Miles Standard and Incentive Program that imposes certain greenhouse gas and EV requirements on the TNC industry, and California climate-related reporting requirements such as California’s Senate Bill 253 (SB 253), Senate Bill 261 (SB 261) and Senate Bill 219 (SB 219). Massachusetts, New York City and Toronto are developing or have developed rules to address the environmental impact of rideshare. In the EU, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (“CSRD”), which was adopted in 2022 and
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significantly amended in 2025, imposes requirements on certain companies to disclose information regarding certain environmental, social and governance practices. While we have assessed that we will not be in scope for CSRD in 2026, we will continue to monitor and evaluate as our business in the EU grows. Further, other jurisdictions are likely to consider similar rules, regulations and/or reporting requirements in the future. Efforts to comply with these policies and reporting requirements are likely to increase our costs, including costs related to reporting, the implementation of extensive internal controls processes and procedures regarding matters that have not been subject to such levels of controls in the past, and impose increased oversight obligations on our management and board of directors, as well as require us to hire third party experts. Any failure to meet the requirements could impact our ability to operate in the applicable jurisdiction. Failure to comply could also harm our reputation and brand.
As part of our long-term strategies to address climate risks and climate regulation, which we believe includes market shifts toward EVs and lower carbon-based business models, we often advocate for EV programs that can be efficiently accessed by drivers on our platform and rental car operators. Any failure of such programs to address EV capital costs, EV charging costs, and EV charging infrastructure in the context of TNCs’ unique needs could challenge our ability to progress toward internal and external EV targets. Furthermore, these EV programs are asset-intensive and require significant capital investments and recurring costs, including debt payments, maintenance, depreciation, asset life and asset replacement costs, and if we are not able to maintain sufficient levels of utilization of such assets or such offerings are otherwise not successful, our investments may not generate sufficient returns and our financial condition may be adversely affected. If we are not able to allocate sufficient capital or other resources to these programs and achievement of these goals, we may not be able to make progress toward or achieve such commitments and goals in a timely manner or at all, or we may need to modify or terminate certain programs or goals. We may also enter into arrangements with third parties for financing, leasing or otherwise, to enable us to meet our commitments and other legal or regulatory requirements. Such transactions may require us to provide guarantees for financing. If we fail, or are perceived to fail, to make such progress or achievements, or to maintain environmental practices that meet evolving stakeholder expectations, or if we revise any of our commitments, initiatives, or goals, our brand and reputation could be harmed and we may face criticism from the media or our stakeholders, and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Risks Related to Financing and Transactional Factors
We may require additional capital, which may not be available on terms acceptable to us or at all, and which could reduce our ability to compete and could harm our business.
Historically, we funded our capital-intensive operations and capital expenditures primarily through equity and debt issuances and cash generated from our operations. To support our growing business, we must have sufficient capital to meet our anticipated cash needs for working capital and capital expenditures (including to continue to make significant investments in our offerings, including potential new offerings). From time to time, we may seek additional equity or debt financing, including by the issuance of securities, to finance our operations and growth or to refinance our existing indebtedness, among other things. If we raise additional funds through the issuance of equity, equity-linked or debt securities, such as our convertible senior notes due 2029 (the “2029 Notes”) and convertible senior notes due 2030 (the “2030 Notes”), those securities may have rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of our Class A common stock, and our existing stockholders may experience dilution. Further, we have secured debt financing which has resulted in fixed obligations and certain restrictive covenants, and any debt financing secured by us in the future would result in increased fixed obligations and could involve additional restrictive covenants relating to our capital-raising activities and other financial and operational matters, as well as liens on some or all of our assets, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities.
We evaluate financing opportunities from time to time, and our ability to obtain financing will depend, among other things, on our development efforts, business plans and operating performance and the condition of the capital markets at the time we seek financing. Additionally, uncertain and volatile macroeconomic conditions, including economic instability or uncertainty, and other events beyond our control, such as slowing growth in the worldwide economy, inflation and high interest rates, as well as the instability and volatility in the banking and financial services sector, and the conflicts in the Middle East and war in Ukraine, have negatively impacted the financing markets, and may impact our access to capital and make additional capital more difficult or available only on terms less favorable to us. We cannot be certain that additional financing will be available to us on favorable terms, or at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us, when we require it, our ability to compete and continue to support our business growth and to respond to business challenges could be significantly limited, and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
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If we are unable to make acquisitions and investments, or successfully integrate them into our business, or if we enter into strategic transactions that do not achieve our objectives, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
As part of our business strategy, we will continue to consider a wide array of potential strategic transactions, including acquisitions of businesses, new technologies, services and other assets, joint ventures and strategic investments that complement our business, such as our recent acquisitions, as well as divestitures, partnerships and other transactions. We have previously acquired and invested in, and we continue to seek to acquire and invest in businesses, technologies, or other assets that we believe could complement or expand our business, including acquisitions of new offerings, new geographies and other opportunities that operate in relatively nascent markets. We also may explore investments in new technologies, which we may develop or other parties may develop. The identification, evaluation, and negotiation of potential acquisition or strategic investment transactions may divert the attention of management and entail various expenses, whether or not such transactions are ultimately completed. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in identifying, negotiating, and consummating favorable transaction opportunities.
These transactions involve numerous risks, whether or not completed, any of which could harm our business and negatively affect our financial condition and results of operations, including:
•intense competition for suitable acquisition and investment targets, which could increase transaction costs and adversely affect our ability to consummate deals on favorable or acceptable terms;
•failure or material delay in closing a transaction;
•transaction-related lawsuits or claims;
•our ability to successfully obtain indemnification or representation and warranty insurance;
•difficulties in integrating the technologies, operations, existing contracts and personnel of an acquired company;
•challenges related to entering into new markets or geographies;
•difficulties in retaining key employees or business partners of an acquired company;
•diversion of financial and management resources from existing operations or alternative acquisition opportunities;
•failure to realize the anticipated benefits or synergies of a transaction;
•failure to identify the problems, liabilities or other shortcomings or challenges of an acquired company or technology, including issues related to intellectual property, regulatory compliance practices, litigation, revenue recognition or other accounting practices, or employee or user issues;
•acquired businesses or businesses that we invest in may not have adequate controls, processes, and procedures to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, including with respect to data privacy, data protection, and data security, as well as anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws, export controls, sanctions and industry-specific-regulation;
•risks that regulatory bodies may enact new laws or promulgate new regulations that are adverse to an acquired company or business, or the risk that we become subject to new or additional regulatory burdens that affect our business in potentially unanticipated and significantly negative ways;
•theft of our trade secrets or confidential information that we share with potential acquisition candidates;
•risk that an acquired company or investment in new offerings cannibalizes a portion of our existing business; and
•adverse market reaction to an acquisition.
In addition, we may divest businesses or assets or enter into joint ventures, strategic partnerships or other strategic transactions. In addition, as a result of our acquisition of PBSC Urban Solutions, we became an indirect party to certain partnerships and joint ventures that we did not negotiate, and with partners with whom we are less familiar. These types of transactions present certain risks; for example, we may not achieve the desired strategic, operational and financial benefits of a divestiture, partnership, joint venture or other strategic transaction, or we may have difficulty operating together with another partner or joint venturer. In addition, in light of high interest rates and the volatility of the financial markets, it may be more difficult to find suitable acquirors or business partners, and during the pendency of a divestiture or during the integration or separation process of any strategic transaction, we may be subject to risks related to a decline in the business, loss of employees, customers, or suppliers, and the risk that the transaction does not close.
Further, minority investments inherently involve a lesser degree of control over business operations, thereby potentially increasing the financial, legal, operational, regulatory, and/or compliance risks associated with the investment. In addition, we may be dependent on other persons or entities who control the entities in which we invest, including their
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management or controlling shareholders, and who may have business interests, strategies, or goals that are inconsistent with ours. Business decisions or other actions or omissions of the joint venture partners, controlling shareholders, management, or other persons or entities who control them may adversely affect the value of our investment or result in litigation or regulatory action against us. We can provide no assurance that our investments in other technologies or businesses will generate returns for our business, or that we will not lose our initial investment in whole or in part. For example, in the past we have incurred impairment charges in connection with the wind-down of an AV partner.
If we fail to address the foregoing risks or other problems encountered in connection with past or future acquisitions of businesses, new technologies, services and other assets, strategic investments or other transactions, or if we fail to successfully integrate such acquisitions or investments, or if we are unable to successfully complete other transactions or such transactions do not meet our strategic objectives, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Servicing our current and future debt may require a significant amount of cash, and we may not have sufficient cash flow from our business to pay our indebtedness. Our payment obligations under such indebtedness may limit the funds available to us, and the terms of our debt agreements may restrict our flexibility in operating our business or otherwise adversely affect our results of operations.
In February 2024 and September 2025, we issued our 2029 Notes and 2030 Notes, respectively, in a private placement to qualified institutional buyers. In addition, in connection with our acquisition of Flexdrive, which is an independently managed, wholly-owned subsidiary, Flexdrive remained responsible for its obligations under a Loan and Security Agreement, as amended, with a third-party lender, a Master Vehicle Acquisition Financing and Security Agreement, as amended, with a third-party lender and a Vehicle Procurement Agreement, as amended, with a third-party; and, following the acquisition, we continued to guarantee the payments of Flexdrive for any amounts borrowed under these agreements. As of June 30, 2026, we had $1.0 billion of indebtedness for borrowed money outstanding. In November 2022, we also entered into a revolving credit facility (the “Revolving Credit Facility”) with certain lenders providing the ability to borrow an aggregate principal amount of up to $420.0 million, none of which has been drawn as of June 30, 2026, and $61.3 million in letters of credit were issued under the Revolving Credit Facility as of June 30, 2026. On December 12, 2023, we entered into an amendment to the Revolving Credit Facility which, among other things, permitted us to refinance the 2025 Notes and amends certain financial covenants. On February 21, 2024, the Revolving Credit Facility was further amended to, among other things: (a) solely for the purposes of the financial covenant test, replace total leverage with total net leverage and (b) permit us to repurchase up to a specified amount of the Company’s common stock with the proceeds of a convertible note offering. See Note 11 “Debt” to our condensed consolidated financial statements, for further information on these agreements and our outstanding debt obligations.
Our ability to make scheduled payments of the principal of, to pay interest or fees on or to refinance or repay our indebtedness depends on our future performance, which is subject to economic, financial, competitive and other factors beyond our control. Our business may not generate cash flow from operations in the future sufficient to service our debt and make necessary capital expenditures. If we are unable to generate such cash flow, we may be required to adopt one or more alternatives, such as selling assets, restructuring debt or obtaining additional debt financing or equity capital on terms that may be onerous or highly dilutive. Our ability to refinance any existing or future indebtedness will depend on the capital markets, general macroeconomic conditions and our financial condition at such time. We may not be able to engage in any of these activities or engage in these activities on desirable terms, which could result in a default on our debt obligations. Events and circumstances may also occur which would cause us to not be able to satisfy applicable draw-down conditions and utilize our revolving credit facility. In addition, any of our future debt agreements may contain restrictive covenants that may prohibit us from adopting any of these alternatives. Our failure to comply with these covenants could result in an event of default which, if not cured or waived, could result in the acceleration of our debt.
In addition, our indebtedness, combined with our other financial obligations and contractual commitments, could have other important consequences. For example, it could:
•make us more vulnerable to adverse changes in general U.S. and worldwide economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation;
•limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and our industry;
•place us at a disadvantage compared to our competitors who have less debt;
•limit our ability to borrow additional amounts to fund acquisitions, for working capital and for other general corporate purposes; and
•make an acquisition of our company less attractive or more difficult.
In addition, under certain of our and our subsidiary’s existing debt instruments, we and Flexdrive are subject to customary affirmative and negative covenants regarding our business and operations, including limitations on Flexdrive’s ability to enter into certain acquisitions or consolidations or engage in certain asset dispositions. If we or Flexdrive, as
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applicable, do not comply with these covenants or otherwise default under the arrangements, and do not obtain an amendment, waiver or consent from the lenders, then, subject to applicable cure periods, any outstanding debt may be declared immediately due and payable. Further, any such amendment, waiver or consent that we are able to obtain may contain additional restrictions or terms that are less favorable to us. Any debt financing secured by us in the future could involve additional restrictive covenants relating to our capital-raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions or divestitures. Any default under our debt arrangements could require that we repay our loans immediately, and may limit our ability to obtain additional financing, which in turn may have an adverse effect on our cash flows and liquidity.
Any of these factors could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, if we incur additional indebtedness, the risks related to our business and our ability to service or repay our indebtedness would increase.
Our revolving credit facility contains financial covenants and other restrictions on our actions that may limit our operational flexibility or otherwise adversely affect our results of operations.
The terms of our revolving credit facility include a number of covenants that limit our ability and our subsidiaries’ ability to, among other things, incur additional indebtedness, grant liens, merge or consolidate with other companies or sell substantially all of our assets, pay dividends, make redemptions and repurchases of stock, make investments, loans and acquisitions, or engage in transactions with affiliates. The terms of our revolving credit facility may restrict our current and future operations and could adversely affect our ability to finance our future operations or capital needs. In addition, complying with these covenants may make it more difficult for us to successfully execute our business strategy, including potential acquisitions, and compete against companies which are not subject to such restrictions.
A failure by us to comply with the covenants or payment requirements specified in our credit agreement could result in an event of default under the agreement, which would give the lenders the right to terminate their commitments to provide additional loans under our revolving credit facility and to declare all borrowings outstanding, together with accrued and unpaid interest and fees, to be immediately due and payable. If the debt under our revolving credit facility were to be accelerated, we may not have sufficient cash or be able to borrow sufficient funds to refinance the debt or sell sufficient assets to repay the debt, which could immediately adversely affect our business, cash flows, results of operations, and financial condition. Even if we were able to obtain new financing or negotiate an amendment, waiver or consent under our existing credit agreement, it may contain additional restrictions, or not be on commercially reasonable terms or on terms that are acceptable to us.
We are subject to counterparty risk with respect to the capped call transactions.
In connection with the issuance of our 2029 Notes and 2030 Notes, we entered into the capped call transactions (the “2029 Capped Calls” and “2030 Capped Calls”, respectively) with certain financial institutions (the “option counterparties”). We are subject to the risk that any or all of the option counterparties might default under the 2029 Capped Calls and 2030 Capped Calls. Our exposure to the credit risk of the option counterparties will not be secured by any collateral. Past global economic conditions have resulted in the actual or perceived failure or financial difficulties of many financial institutions. If an option counterparty becomes subject to insolvency proceedings, we will become an unsecured creditor in those proceedings with a claim equal to our exposure at that time under the 2029 Capped Calls and 2030 Capped Calls with such option counterparty. Our exposure will depend on many factors but, generally, an increase in our exposure will be correlated to an increase in the market price and in the volatility of our Class A common stock. In addition, upon a default by an option counterparty, we may suffer adverse tax consequences and more dilution than we currently anticipate with respect to our Class A common stock. We can provide no assurance as to the financial stability or viability of the option counterparties.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
As of December 31, 2025, we had $7.9 billion of federal, $6.4 billion of state, and $557.4 million of foreign net operating losses (“NOLs”) available to reduce future taxable income, which will begin to expire in 2034 for federal income tax purposes and in 2026 for state and foreign income tax purposes. It is possible that we will not generate taxable income in time to use NOLs before their expiration. Under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change NOLs to offset its post-change income may be limited. In general, an “ownership change” will occur if there is a cumulative change in our ownership by “5-percent shareholders” that exceeds 50 percentage points over a rolling three-year period. Limitations may also apply under state and foreign tax laws. For example, in June 2024, California enacted legislation that limits the use of state NOLs for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2024, and before January 1, 2027.
Under current law, the use of federal NOLs arising in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017 is limited to 80% of taxable income. Not all states conform to this provision. In future years, this provision may limit the usability of our NOLs generated after December 31, 2017.
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Risks Related to Governance and Ownership of our Capital Stock
The trading price of our Class A common stock may be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
The trading price of our Class A common stock may be volatile and could be subject to fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. These fluctuations could cause you to lose all or part of your investment in our Class A common stock. Factors that could cause fluctuations in the trading price of our Class A common stock include the following:
•price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market from time to time, including fluctuations due to general economic uncertainty or negative market sentiment;
•volatility in the trading prices and trading volumes of technology stocks generally, or those in our industry, including fluctuations unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those technology companies;
•changes in operating performance and stock market valuations of other technology companies generally, or those in our industry in particular;
•sales or purchases of shares of our Class A common stock by us, our officers, or our significant stockholders, as well as the perception that such sales or purchases could occur;
•issuance of shares of our Class A common stock, whether in connection with our equity incentive plans, an acquisition or upon conversion of our outstanding 2029 Notes and 2030 Notes;
•failure of securities analysts to maintain coverage of us, changes in financial estimates by securities analysts who follow our company or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;
•the financial and business projections, targets or goals we provide to the public, any changes in those projections, targets or goals or our failure to meet those projections, targets or goals;
•announcements by us or our competitors of new offerings or platform features;
•investor sentiment and the public’s reaction to our press releases, earnings and other public announcements, and filings with the SEC, or those of our competitors or others in our industry;
•rumors and market speculation involving us or other companies in our industry;
•short selling of our Class A common stock or related derivative securities;
•actual or anticipated changes in our results of operations or fluctuations in our results of operations;
•actual or anticipated developments in our business, our competitors’ businesses or the competitive landscape generally;
•litigation involving us, our industry or both, or investigations by regulators into our operations or those of our competitors;
•developments or disputes concerning our intellectual property or other proprietary rights;
•announced or completed acquisitions of businesses, services or technologies by us or our competitors;
•new laws or regulations or new interpretations of existing laws or regulations applicable to our business or statements by public officials regarding potential new laws or regulations;
•changes in accounting standards, policies, guidelines, interpretations or principles;
•any significant change in our management or our board of directors; and
•general economic conditions and slow or negative growth of our markets.
In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies, including as described in the “Legal Proceedings” subheading in Note 10 “Commitments and Contingencies” to the condensed consolidated financial statements included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Although we believe these lawsuits are without merit and we intend to vigorously defend against them, such matters could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources.
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Delaware law and provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws could make a merger, tender offer or proxy contest difficult, thereby depressing the market price of our Class A common stock.
Our status as a Delaware corporation and the anti-takeover provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control by prohibiting us from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person became an interested stockholder, even if a change of control would be beneficial to our existing stockholders. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that may make the acquisition of our company more difficult, including the following:
•any amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or amendments by stockholders to our amended and restated bylaws require the approval of at least two-thirds of our then-outstanding voting power;
•our board of directors is classified into three classes of directors with staggered three-year terms and directors are only able to be removed from office for cause;
•our stockholders are only able to take action at a meeting of stockholders and are not able to take action by written consent for any matter;
•our amended and restated certificate of incorporation does not provide for cumulative voting;
•vacancies on our board of directors are able to be filled only by our board of directors and not by stockholders;
•a special meeting of our stockholders may only be called by the chairperson of our board of directors, our Chief Executive Officer, our President or a majority of our board of directors;
•certain litigation against us can only be brought in Delaware;
•our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes undesignated preferred stock, the terms of which may be established and shares of which may be issued without further action by our stockholders; and
•advance notice procedures apply for stockholders to nominate candidates for election as directors or to bring matters before an annual meeting of stockholders.
These provisions, alone or together, could discourage, delay or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of our company. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for stockholders to elect directors of their choosing and to cause us to take other corporate actions they desire, any of which, under certain circumstances, could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our Class A common stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our Class A common stock.
Our amended and restated bylaws designate a state or federal court located within the State of Delaware as the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders and also provide that the federal district courts will be the sole and exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act of 1933 (as amended, the “Securities Act”), each of which could limit our stockholders’ ability to choose the judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.
Our amended and restated bylaws provide that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, to the fullest extent permitted by law, the sole and exclusive forum for (1) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (2) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, stockholders, officers or other employees to us or our stockholders, (3) any action arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws or (4) any other action asserting a claim that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine shall be the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or, if the Court of Chancery does not have jurisdiction, another State court in Delaware or the federal district court for the District of Delaware), in all cases subject to the court having jurisdiction over indispensable parties named as defendants. Our amended and restated bylaws also provide that the federal district courts of the U.S. are the sole and exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act against any person in connection with any offering of our securities, including, without limitation and for the avoidance of doubt, any auditor, underwriter, expert, control person or other defendant.
Any person or entity purchasing, holding or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of our securities shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to these provisions. These exclusive-forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum of its choosing for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. If a court were to find the exclusive-forum provisions in our amended and restated bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving the dispute in other jurisdictions, which could harm our results of operations.
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