What Coupang, Inc. told the SEC could break it.

A portion of sales depends on importing finished goods into Korea; quotas, duties, tariffs or trade-agreement changes by Korea, China, the US and others could raise costs and reduce order volume.

“The countries from which some of our products are manufactured or exported, or into which our products are imported, may from time to time impose quotas, duties, tariffs, or other restrictions on imports (including restrictions on manufacturing operations) or adversely modify existing restrictions. Changes in Korea, China, the United States, and other governments regarding international trade, including import and export regulations, tariffs, and international trade agreements, may negatively impact our business.”

The Korean government's heightened focus on IP infringement — particularly luxury/brand-name merchandise (relevant to Coupang's Farfetch marketplace) — could subject Coupang to sanctions, fines or penalties.

“The Korean government has recently focused on addressing intellectual property infringement in Korea, particularly with respect to luxury and well-known brand name merchandise.”

A former employee accessed names, phone numbers, delivery/email addresses for ~33M customer accounts; Coupang faces Korean government investigations, National Assembly appearances and prosecution referrals, and launched a ~$1.2B customer voucher compensation program.

“Based on investigative findings, we determined that a former employee obtained the names, phone numbers, delivery addresses, and email addresses associated with approximately 33 million customer accounts, and certain order histories for a subset of the impacted accounts.”

Over 90% of total net revenues come from Korea and long-lived assets are primarily in Korea, so Coupang's results are highly exposed to the Korean economy and geopolitical risk.

“Based on the location of the legal entity that earned the revenue, over 90 % of our total net revenues are from Korea.”

Coupang reports in USD while substantially all revenue is KRW-denominated; KRW volatility affects reported results and import-driven cost of sales.

“Due to liquidity and credit concerns and volatility in the global financial markets, the value of the KRW relative to the USD and other foreign currencies and the stock prices of Korean companies have fluctuated significantly in recent years.”