Automatic Data Processing Inc.: 10-K Risk Factor Changes

Our business is subject to a wide range of complex U.S. and foreign laws and regulations, including, but not limited to, the laws and regulations described in the “Industry Regulation” section in Part I, Item 1 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Failure to comply with laws and regulations applicable to our operations or client solutions and services could cause us to incur substantial costs or could result in the suspension or revocation of licenses or registrations, the limitation, suspension or termination of services, the imposition of consent orders or civil and criminal penalties, including fines, and lawsuits, including class actions, that could damage our reputation and have a materially adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition. In addition, changes in laws or regulations, or changes in the interpretation of laws or regulations by a regulatory authority, may decrease our revenues and earnings and may require us to change the manner in which we conduct some aspects of our business. For example, a change in regulations either decreasing the amount of taxes to be withheld or allowing less time to remit taxes to government authorities would adversely impact average client balances and, thereby, adversely impact interest income from investing client funds before such funds are remitted to the applicable tax authorities. Changes in U.S. or foreign tax laws, regulations or rulings or the interpretation thereof could adversely affect our effective tax rate and our net income. In addition, changes in federal, state or local tax laws and regulations allowing for tax credits (including the non-renewal of such laws) could adversely impact our Tax Credit Services business, which helps clients in the United States realize tax credit opportunities in connection with the hiring of new employees and certain other activities. Changes in laws or regulations could also cause us to modify our client funds investment strategy, which may reduce the interest income earned on such funds. Changes in laws, or interpretations thereof, that govern the co-employment arrangement between a professional employer organization and its worksite employees may require us to change the manner in which we conduct some aspects of our PEO business. In addition, changes in the manner in which health and welfare plans sponsored by PEOs or the TotalSource Health and Welfare Plan, in particular, are regulated could adversely impact the demand for our PEO offering. Because our PEO is a co-employer with our PEO clients and a Certified PEO by the Internal Revenue Service, we may be subject to certain obligations, responsibilities and liabilities of an employer with respect to Worksite Employees (“WSE”), including with respect to their wages and the payment thereof, tax credits for employers, the payment of certain taxes with respect to WSE wages and employee benefits provided to the WSEs. Even though PEO clients are contractually responsible for the timely remittance of such costs, it is possible that our clients will not remit such payments despite their contractual obligations. The risk of failing to receive such payments from PEO clients could be magnified during significant financial or other disruptions or catastrophic events, such as the failure of a bank with whom a significant number of PEO clients may bank at the time, or more widespread stress or failure within the U.S. banking system. Any such event could prevent or materially delay the recovery of any payments not timely remitted and could have an adverse impact on our financial results and liquidity.In addition, our payroll and tax processing services involve the collection and disbursement of a significant amount of funds to a large number of federal, state and local tax authorities. Our failure to properly or timely remit taxes on behalf of our clients could result in fines, penalties and interest for which we could be responsible, and could materially adversely affect our reputation, results of operations or financial condition.Our Wisely® offerings and potentially other future offerings in the payments and/or consumer space may subject us to additional laws and regulations, some of which may not be uniform and may require us to modify or restrict our offerings and decrease our potential revenue and earnings. withheld or allowing less time to remit taxes to government authorities would adversely impact average client balances and, thereby, adversely impact interest income from investing client funds before such funds are remitted to the applicable tax authorities. Changes in U.S. or foreign tax laws, regulations or rulings or the interpretation thereof could adversely affect our effective tax rate and our net income. In addition, changes in federal, state or local tax laws and regulations allowing for tax credits (including the non-renewal of such laws) could adversely impact our Tax Credit Services business, which helps clients in the United States realize tax credit opportunities in connection with the hiring of new employees and certain other activities. Changes in laws or regulations could also cause us to modify our client funds investment strategy, which may reduce the interest income earned on such funds. Changes in laws, or interpretations thereof, that govern the co-employment arrangement between a professional employer organization and its worksite employees may require us to change the manner in which we conduct some aspects of our PEO business. In addition, changes in the manner in which health and welfare plans sponsored by PEOs or the TotalSource Health and Welfare Plan, in particular, are regulated could adversely impact the demand for our PEO offering. Because our PEO is a co-employer with our PEO clients and a Certified PEO by the Internal Revenue Service, we may be subject to certain obligations, responsibilities and liabilities of an employer with respect to Worksite Employees (“WSE”), including with respect to their wages and the payment thereof, tax credits for employers, the payment of certain taxes with respect to WSE wages and employee benefits provided to the WSEs. Even though PEO clients are contractually responsible for the timely remittance of such costs, it is possible that our clients will not remit such payments despite their contractual obligations. The risk of failing to receive such payments from PEO clients could be magnified during significant financial or other disruptions or catastrophic events, such as the failure of a bank with whom a significant number of PEO clients may bank at the time, or more widespread stress or failure within the U.S. banking system. Any such event could prevent or materially delay the recovery of any payments not timely remitted and could have an adverse impact on our financial results and liquidity. In addition, our payroll and tax processing services involve the collection and disbursement of a significant amount of funds to a large number of federal, state and local tax authorities. Our failure to properly or timely remit taxes on behalf of our clients could result in fines, penalties and interest for which we could be responsible, and could materially adversely affect our reputation, results of operations or financial condition. Our Wisely® offerings and potentially other future offerings in the payments and/or consumer space may subject us to additional laws and regulations, some of which may not be uniform and may require us to modify or restrict our offerings and decrease our potential revenue and earnings. 16 16 16 Failure to comply with anti-corruption laws and regulations, economic and trade sanctions, anti-money laundering laws and regulations, and similar laws could have a materially adverse effect on our reputation, results of operations or financial condition, or have other adverse consequencesRegulators worldwide continue to exercise a high level of scrutiny with respect to anti-corruption, economic and trade sanctions, and anti-money laundering laws and regulations. Such scrutiny has resulted in aggressive investigations and enforcement of such laws and regulations, any of which could materially adversely impact our business. We operate our business around the world, including in numerous developing economies where companies and government officials are more likely to engage in business practices that are prohibited by domestic and foreign laws and regulations, including the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act 2010. Such laws generally prohibit improper payments or offers of payments to foreign government officials and leaders of political parties and, in some cases, to other persons, for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. We are also subject to economic and trade sanctions programs, including those administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which prohibit or restrict transactions or dealings with specified countries, their governments and, in certain circumstances, their nationals, and with individuals and entities that are specially designated, including narcotics traffickers and terrorists or terrorist organizations, among others. In addition, some of our businesses and entities in the U.S. and a number of other countries in which we operate are subject to anti-money laundering laws and regulations, including, for example, The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, as amended by the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 (the “BSA”). Among other things, the BSA requires certain financial institutions, including banks and money services businesses (such as national trust banks and providers of prepaid access like us), to develop and implement risk-based anti-money laundering programs, report large cash transactions and suspicious activity, and maintain transaction records. We have registered our prepaid card business as a provider of prepaid access, and registered ADP Trust Bank and ADP Retirement Trust Services with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. ADP Canada Co. is a registered entity with FINTRAC as a Money Service Business. In November 2024, ADP Canada Co. filed its application for registration with the Bank of Canada as a Payment Services Provider as defined and required under the Retail Payment Activities Act. We have implemented policies and procedures to monitor and address compliance with applicable anti-corruption, economic and trade sanctions and anti-money laundering laws and regulations, and we regularly review, upgrade and enhance our policies and procedures. However, there can be no assurance that our employees, consultants or agents will not take actions in violation of our policies for which we may be ultimately responsible, or that our policies and procedures will be adequate or will be determined to be adequate by regulators. Any violations of applicable anti-corruption, economic and trade sanctions or anti-money laundering laws or regulations could limit certain of our business activities until they are satisfactorily remediated and could result in civil and criminal penalties, including fines, which could damage our reputation and have a materially adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition. Further, bank regulators continue to impose additional and stricter requirements on banks to ensure they are meeting their BSA obligations, and banks are increasingly viewing money services businesses and third-party senders to be higher risk customers for money laundering. As a result, our banking partners that assist in processing our money movement transactions may limit the scope of services they provide to us or may impose additional material requirements on us. These regulatory restrictions on banks and changes to banks’ internal risk-based policies and procedures may result in a decrease in the number of banks that may do business with us, may require us to materially change the manner in which we conduct some aspects of our business, may decrease our revenues and earnings and could have a materially adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition.Failure to comply with privacy, data protection, artificial intelligence and cyber security laws and regulations could have a materially adverse effect on our reputation, results of operations or financial condition, or have other adverse consequencesThe collection, storage, hosting, transfer, processing, disclosure, use, security and retention and destruction of personal information required to provide our services is subject to federal, state and foreign privacy, data protection and cyber security laws. These laws, which are not uniform, generally do one or more of the following: regulate the collection, storage, hosting, transfer (including in some cases, the transfer outside the country of collection), processing, disclosure, use, security and retention and destruction of personal information; require notice to individuals of privacy practices; give individuals certain access and correction rights with respect to their personal information; and regulate the use or disclosure of personal information for secondary purposes such as marketing. Under certain circumstances, some of these laws require us to provide notification to affected individuals, clients, data protection authorities and/or other regulators in the event of a data breach. In many cases, these laws apply not only to third-party transactions, but also to transfers of information among the Company and its subsidiaries. The European Union (the “EU”) General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”), and state consumer privacy laws like the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (the “CPRA”), are among the most comprehensive of these laws, and more and more jurisdictions are adopting similarly comprehensive laws that impose new data privacy protection requirements and restrictions. As part of our overall data protection compliance program in connection with the GDPR, we implemented Binding Failure to comply with anti-corruption laws and regulations, economic and trade sanctions, anti-money laundering laws and regulations, and similar laws could have a materially adverse effect on our reputation, results of operations or financial condition, or have other adverse consequencesRegulators worldwide continue to exercise a high level of scrutiny with respect to anti-corruption, economic and trade sanctions, and anti-money laundering laws and regulations. Such scrutiny has resulted in aggressive investigations and enforcement of such laws and regulations, any of which could materially adversely impact our business. We operate our business around the world, including in numerous developing economies where companies and government officials are more likely to engage in business practices that are prohibited by domestic and foreign laws and regulations, including the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act 2010. Such laws generally prohibit improper payments or offers of payments to foreign government officials and leaders of political parties and, in some cases, to other persons, for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. We are also subject to economic and trade sanctions programs, including those administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which prohibit or restrict transactions or dealings with specified countries, their governments and, in certain circumstances, their nationals, and with individuals and entities that are specially designated, including narcotics traffickers and terrorists or terrorist organizations, among others. In addition, some of our businesses and entities in the U.S. and a number of other countries in which we operate are subject to anti-money laundering laws and regulations, including, for example, The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, as amended by the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 (the “BSA”). Among other things, the BSA requires certain financial institutions, including banks and money services businesses (such as national trust banks and providers of prepaid access like us), to develop and implement risk-based anti-money laundering programs, report large cash transactions and suspicious activity, and maintain transaction records. We have registered our prepaid card business as a provider of prepaid access, and registered ADP Trust Bank and ADP Retirement Trust Services with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. ADP Canada Co. is a registered entity with FINTRAC as a Money Service Business. In November 2024, ADP Canada Co. filed its application for registration with the Bank of Canada as a Payment Services Provider as defined and required under the Retail Payment Activities Act. We have implemented policies and procedures to monitor and address compliance with applicable anti-corruption, economic and trade sanctions and anti-money laundering laws and regulations, and we regularly review, upgrade and enhance our policies and procedures. However, there can be no assurance that our employees, consultants or agents will not take actions in violation of our policies for which we may be ultimately responsible, or that our policies and

Our business is subject to a wide range of complex U.S. and foreign laws and regulations, including, but not limited to, the laws and regulations described in the “Industry Regulation” section in Part I, Item 1 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Failure to comply with laws and regulations applicable to our operations or client solutions and services could cause us to incur substantial costs or could result in the suspension or revocation of licenses or registrations, the limitation, suspension or termination of services, the imposition of consent orders or civil and criminal penalties, including fines, and lawsuits, including class actions, that could damage our reputation and have a materially adverse effect on our results of operation or financial condition. In addition, changes in laws or regulations, or changes in the interpretation of laws or regulations by a regulatory authority, may decrease our revenues and earnings and may require us to change the manner in which we conduct some aspects of our business. For example, a change in regulations either decreasing the amount of taxes to be withheld or allowing less time to remit taxes to government authorities would adversely impact average client balances and, thereby, adversely impact interest income from investing client funds before such funds are remitted to the applicable tax authorities. Changes in U.S. or foreign tax laws, regulations or rulings or the interpretation thereof could adversely affect our effective tax rate and our net income. Changes in laws, or interpretations thereof, that govern the co-employment arrangement between a professional employer organization and its worksite employees may require us to change the manner in which we conduct some aspects of our PEO business. In addition, changes in the manner in which health and welfare plans sponsored by PEOs or the TotalSource Health and Welfare Plan, in particular, are regulated could adversely impact the demand for our PEO offering. Because our PEO is a co-employer with our PEO clients and a Certified PEO by the Internal Revenue Service, we may be subject to certain obligations, responsibilities and liabilities of an employer with respect to Worksite Employees (WSE), including with respect to their wages and the payment thereof, the payment of certain taxes with respect to WSE wages and employee benefits provided to the WSEs. Even though PEO clients are contractually responsible for the timely remittance of such costs, it is possible that our clients will not remit such payments despite their contractual obligations. The risk of failing to receive such payments from PEO clients could be magnified during significant financial or other disruptions or catastrophic events, such as the failure of a bank with whom a significant number of PEO clients may bank at the time, or more widespread stress or failure within the U.S. banking system. Any such event could prevent or materially delay the recovery of any payments not timely remitted and could have an adverse impact on our financial results and liquidity.Our Wisely® offerings and potentially other future offerings in the payments and/or consumer space may subject us to additional laws and regulations, some of which may not be uniform and may require us to modify or restrict our offerings and decrease our potential revenue and earnings. Failure to comply with anti-corruption laws and regulations, economic and trade sanctions, anti-money laundering laws and regulations, and similar laws could have a materially adverse effect on our reputation, results of operations or financial condition, or have other adverse consequencesRegulators worldwide continue to exercise a high level of scrutiny with respect to anti-corruption, economic and trade sanctions, and anti-money laundering laws and regulations. Such scrutiny has resulted in aggressive investigations and enforcement of such laws and burdensome regulations, any of which could materially adversely impact our business. We operate our business around the world, including in numerous developing economies where companies and government officials are more likely to engage in business practices that are withheld or allowing less time to remit taxes to government authorities would adversely impact average client balances and, thereby, adversely impact interest income from investing client funds before such funds are remitted to the applicable tax authorities. Changes in U.S. or foreign tax laws, regulations or rulings or the interpretation thereof could adversely affect our effective tax rate and our net income. Changes in laws, or interpretations thereof, that govern the co-employment arrangement between a professional employer organization and its worksite employees may require us to change the manner in which we conduct some aspects of our PEO business. In addition, changes in the manner in which health and welfare plans sponsored by PEOs or the TotalSource Health and Welfare Plan, in particular, are regulated could adversely impact the demand for our PEO offering. Because our PEO is a co-employer with our PEO clients and a Certified PEO by the Internal Revenue Service, we may be subject to certain obligations, responsibilities and liabilities of an employer with respect to Worksite Employees (WSE), including with respect to their wages and the payment thereof, the payment of certain taxes with respect to WSE wages and employee benefits provided to the WSEs. Even though PEO clients are contractually responsible for the timely remittance of such costs, it is possible that our clients will not remit such payments despite their contractual obligations. The risk of failing to receive such payments from PEO clients could be magnified during significant financial or other disruptions or catastrophic events, such as the failure of a bank with whom a significant number of PEO clients may bank at the time, or more widespread stress or failure within the U.S. banking system. Any such event could prevent or materially delay the recovery of any payments not timely remitted and could have an adverse impact on our financial results and liquidity. Our Wisely® offerings and potentially other future offerings in the payments and/or consumer space may subject us to additional laws and regulations, some of which may not be uniform and may require us to modify or restrict our offerings and decrease our potential revenue and earnings.