Company: STAA
Filing Date: 2025-02-21
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-024813
Chunk: 50

Company: STAAR SURGICAL CO
Filing Date: 2025-02-21
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 50
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 deductible or retention amount after which the insurer begins paying. The payment of retentions or deductibles for a significant number of claims could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Any product liability claim would divert managerial and financial resources and could harm our reputation with customers. We cannot assure investors that we will not have product liability claims in the future or that such claims would not have a material adverse effect on our business.

Our defined benefit pension plans are currently underfunded and we may be subject to significant increases in pension benefit obligations under those pension plans.

We sponsor two defined benefit pension plans through our wholly owned Swiss and Japanese subsidiaries, which we refer to as the “Swiss Plan” and the “Japan Plan”, respectively. Both plans are underfunded and may require significant cash payments. We determine our pension benefit obligations and funding status using many assumptions. If the investment performance does not meet our expectations, or if other actuarial assumptions are modified, or not realized, we may be required to contribute more than we currently expect and increase our future pension benefit obligations to be funded from our operations. Our pension plans taken together are underfunded by approximately $6.7 million ($0.4 million for the Japan Plan and $6.3 million for the Swiss Plan) as of December 27, 2024. If our cash flow from operations is insufficient to fund our worldwide pension obligations, as well as other cash requirements, we may have to seek additional capital.

Our activities involve hazardous materials, emissions, and use of an irradiator and may subject us to environmental liability.

Our manufacturing, research and development activities involve the use of hazardous materials and equipment and use of an irradiator. Federal, state and local laws and regulations govern the use, manufacturing, storage, handling and disposal of these materials and certain waste products in the places where we have operations. We cannot eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials and equipment. Remedial environmental actions could require us to incur substantial unexpected costs, which could materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. If we were involved in an environmental accident or found to be in substantial non-compliance with applicable environmental laws, it could harm our reputation, and we could be held liable for damages or penalized with fines.

Data corruption, cyber-based attacks or network security breaches and/or noncompliance with data protection and privacy regulations could negatively impact our operations.

We depend on information technology networks and our information technology infrastructure for electronic communications among our locations around