ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Summary of Risk Factors
Our business is subject to numerous risks. The following is a summary of the principal risks that we believe are material to our stockholders and prospective stockholders and that should be carefully considered when evaluating our Company, our business and prospects:
■ Our business depends on the continued growth of online commerce and digital financial services, the commercial and financial activity that our users generate on our platforms and the availability and reliability of the Internet in Latin America;
■ We operate in a highly competitive and evolving environment;
■ Any use of AI/ML technologies in our operations may present additional labor, legal, regulatory, and social risks, which could lead to additional costs and impact our competitive position;
■ We rely on third-party platforms, such as Google Play and Apple app stores, to access our Mercado Libre and Mercado Pago apps;
■ Our future success depends on our ability to expand and adapt our operations to meet rapidly changing industry and technology standards in a cost-effective and timely manner;
■ The markets in which we operate are rapidly evolving and we may not be able to maintain our profitability;
■ We may be liable for or experience reputational damage resulting from user default or the failure of our ecosystem services ;
■ Fraudulent activity by our users could negatively impact our operating results, brand and reputation and cause the use of services to decrease;
■ We are subject to consumer trends and could lose revenue if certain items become less popular or if we fail to meet customer demand;
■ Manufacturers may limit distribution of their products by distributors, prevent distributors from selling through us or encourage governments to limit e-commerce;
■ Our failure or the failure of our partners to manage Mercado Pago users’ funds properly could harm our business;
■ We rely on banks and investment funds that acquire Mercado Pago’s receivables and payment processors to fund transactions, and changes to card association fees, rules or practices may adversely affect our business;
■ The failure of the financial institutions with which we conduct business may have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition;
■ A rise in interest rates may negatively affect our Mercado Pago payment volume;
■ Changes in Mercado Pago’s funding mix and ticket mix could adversely affect Mercado Pago’s results;
■ Our lending solution exposes us to the credit risk of our merchants and consumers, among other risks;
■ We face significant risks related to the ongoing reliability of our logistics network and shipping service;
■ Failure to successfully operate our fulfillment network may also negatively affect our business;
■ Problems that affect our service providers could potentially adversely affect us as well;
■ If we are unable to compete effectively for advertising spend, or if our merchants reduce advertising spend, our business and results of operations could be materially harmed;
■ We may not realize benefits from recent or future strategic investments, acquisitions of businesses, technologies, services or products, despite their capital outlay and potential dilution to our stockholders;
■ We depend on key personnel, the loss of which could have a material adverse effect on us;
■ We may have inadequate business insurance coverage, which would require us to spend significant resources in the event of a disruption of our services or other contingency;
■ Our debt instruments contain restrictions that limit our flexibility in operating our business, and changes by any rating agency to our outlook or credit rating could negatively affect us;
■ We are exposed to the value of digital assets that may be subject to volatile market prices and unique risks of loss;
■ Increasing scrutiny and evolving expectations from customers, regulators, investors, and other stakeholders with respect to our environmental, social and governance practices may impose additional costs on us or expose us to new or additional risks;
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■ There are potential risks related to our cryptocurrency buy, hold and sell feature;
■ Natural disasters, climate change, geopolitical events, global health epidemics or pandemics, transportation disruptions and catastrophic events could materially adversely affect our financial performance;
■ We are subject to extensive government regulation and oversight. Failure to comply with existing and future rules and regulations in the jurisdictions in which we operate could adversely affect the operations of one or more of our businesses in those jurisdictions;
■ It may be difficult to enforce judgments rendered against us in U.S. courts;
■ We could face legal and financial liability upon the sale of items that infringe intellectual property rights of third parties and for information and material disseminated through our platforms;
■ We may not be able to adequately protect and enforce our intellectual property rights. We could potentially face claims alleging that our technologies infringe the property rights of others;
■ Any delay or problem with operating or upgrading our existing information technology infrastructure could cause a disruption in our business and adversely impact our financial results;
■ We are subject to security breaches, disruption and confidential data theft from our systems, which can adversely affect our reputation and business;
■ We may not be able to secure licenses for technologies on which we rely;
■ We face the risk of political and economic crises, instability, terrorism, civil strife, labor conflicts, expropriation, corruption and other risks of doing business in emerging markets;
■ Latin American governments have exercised and continue to exercise significant influence over the economies of the countries where we operate. This involvement, as well as political and economic conditions, could adversely affect our business;
■ Local currencies used in the conduct of our business are subject to depreciation, volatility and exchange controls;
■ Our transactions in Latin America may be impacted by the weaknesses of secure payment methods; and
■ Provisions of our certificate of incorporation and Delaware law could inhibit others from acquiring us, prevent a change of control, and may prevent efforts by our stockholders to change our management.
Set forth below is a full description of each of the risks that we believe are material to our stockholders and prospective stockholders. You should carefully consider the following factors in evaluating our Company, our properties and our business.
Risks related to our business and operations
Our business depends on the continued growth of online commerce and digital financial services, the commercial and financial activity that our users generate on our platforms and the availability and reliability of the Internet in Latin America
Online commerce and digital financial services are still a developing market in Latin America, with usage patterns continuing to evolve rapidly. A significant portion of our business is based on an Internet platform for commercial and financial transactions in which almost all activity depends on our users and is therefore largely outside of our control. For third-party sales, third party sellers decide independently which items they will list and their pricing and commercial policies. Our future revenues depend substantially on Latin American consumers’ and providers’ widespread acceptance and continued use of the Internet as a way to conduct commerce and to carry out specific financial transactions as well as on the reliability, affordability and speed of mobile data networks and fixed broadband infrastructure across the region. For us to grow our user base successfully, more consumers and providers must accept and use new ways of conducting business and exchanging information, including through mobile devices and digital financial tools. The price of personal computers and/or mobile devices and Internet access may limit our potential growth in certain areas or countries with low levels of Internet penetration and/or high levels of poverty, or where inflation and currency devaluations increase the cost of connectivity and hardware. Internet infrastructure in Latin America may not be able to support continued growth in the number of Internet users, their frequency of use or their bandwidth requirements, especially given the increasing data demands of video content, AI-driven services and logistics-tracking technologies.
Given that we operate in a business environment in Latin America that is different than the environment in which other companies providing e-commerce and digital financial services operate, including differences in connectivity costs, payment infrastructure, and logistics networks, the performance of such other companies is not an indication of our future financial performance. Availability, transaction speeds, acceptance, interest and use of the Internet across Latin America are all critical to our growth and services, as is continued access to reliable regional cloud infrastructure, payment networks and mobile platforms operated by third parties, and the occurrence of any one or more of the above challenges to Internet usage or disruptions in regional telecommunications, data centers or payment-processing networks could have a material adverse effect on our business.
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We operate in a highly competitive and evolving environment
The e-commerce and omnichannel retail, e-commerce services, fintech and digital content and electronic devices industries are still relatively new in Latin America, rapidly evolving, highly innovative and intensely competitive, and we expect competition to become more intense in the future. To compete successfully, we must accurately anticipate technological developments and deliver innovative, relevant and useful products and services in a timely manner. Our competitors may respond to new or emerging technologies and capabilities, including practical applications of AI/ML, as well as changes in customer requirements, faster and more effectively than we may, and they may also devote greater resources to the development, promotion, and sale of products and services.
Barriers to entry are relatively low, and our current offline and new digital competitors, including small businesses who want to create and promote their own stores or platforms, can easily launch new sites, mobile platforms or applications at relatively low costs using software that is commercially available, or partner with other e-commerce, search, advertising or social media companies. Users who purchase or sell goods and services through us have increasingly more options, and merchants also have more channels to reach consumers. Competitors may also be more narrowly focused on a particular type of goods and create a compelling community for those particular goods. In 2025, several new global and regional entrants, including rapidly expanding Asian e-commerce platforms, gained significant market share in Latin America through low-price strategies, direct-from-manufacturer supply chains and cross-border logistics models. These developments, together with the continued growth of omnichannel and local competitors, illustrate the highly competitive nature of the Latin American e-commerce and fintech markets, where barriers to entry remain low and users and merchants can easily switch or use multiple across competing platforms at the same time.
We have many competitors in different industries, ranging from large and established companies to emerging start-ups. Mercado Libre’s Marketplace currently competes with a number of companies operating throughout Latin America, including: traditional brick and mortar retailers, e-commerce and omnichannel retailers and vendors and distributors offering physical, digital and interactive media products; online sales, auction services and comparison shopping websites; social media platforms and online and app-based means of search engines for the purchase of goods and services; companies that provide e-commerce related services such as inventory, storage and supply chain management, fulfillment, advertising and payment processing; other small online service providers, including those that serve specialty markets; and business-to-consumer online commerce services. The emergence of new international players, particularly from Asia, further demonstrates that the markets in which we operate remain open and dynamic, although such entrants may exert additional pressure on pricing, marketing expenditures and logistics capabilities across the region. Mercado Pago competes with existing online and offline companies, including, among others: traditional banks and financial institutions; fintech companies (e.g., crowdfunding institutions, electronic payment providers), and other providers of financial services and payment methods, particularly credit, prepaid and debit cards, checks, money orders, and electronic bank deposits and transactions; payment networks that facilitate processing and aggregation of payments cards and retail networks; tokenized and contactless payment services, digital wallets, cryptocurrency wallets, QR code-based solutions and other payment solutions; international and local online payments services; the use of cash, which is often preferred in Latin America; offline funding alternatives such as cash deposit and money transfer services; peer to peer payments and electronic money remittances; and other point of sale terminals and devices or technologies installed at merchants’ sites.
Competitors with larger, more well-established and well-financed companies have greater resources, a longer history, greater brand recognition, more customers and better access to suppliers of critical inputs and products. This positioning allows our competitors to acquire, invest in or enter into commercial relationships with competing businesses, adopt more aggressive pricing, secure better terms from suppliers, make acquisitions and enter into other strategic arrangements, devote more resources to technology, marketing and promotional campaigns, infrastructure, fulfillment and payment solutions and continue to compete for users, advertisers, customers, and partners. These competitive advantages could be used to harm our competitive position through the adoption of restrictive covenants with suppliers, self-preferencing their product offerings, tying and bundling services and cross subsidizing. Competing services tied to established banks and other financial institutions may offer greater liquidity and create greater consumer confidence in the safety and efficacy of our competitors' services. Established banks and other financial institutions currently offer online payments, and those that do not yet provide such a service could quickly and develop it.
In many cases, companies that directly or indirectly compete with us provide Internet access and other services. Some of these providers may take measures that could degrade, disrupt, increase the cost of customers’ use of our services or advocate for government measures that could increase or change regulatory requirements that increase our costs, all of which could adversely affect our business and results of operations. Further, discrepancies in the enforcement of existing laws may enable our competitors to leverage such discrepancies in their favor, thereby affording them competitive advantages. Similarly, some of our competitors have been accused of anticompetitive business practices in other jurisdictions, which they can replicate in Latin American countries where antitrust authorities have not yet focused on such commercial practices and where we actively compete.
The global financial services and payments industry is continuously changing and increasingly subject to regulatory supervision and continued examination. Some of the payment services offered by our competitors operate at lower commission rates than Mercado Pago’s current rates, which has resulted in market pressures with respect to the commissions we charge for our Mercado Pago services. Moreover, establishing a financial services and payments solution entity in Latin America has proven to be difficult and resource intensive in terms of time and capital. Traditional banking and financial institutions in Latin America still have significant influence over sectoral regulators and have been relatively successful at influencing the enactment of new regulations that may hinder or restrict the overall success of fintech businesses by imposing unnecessary and cumbersome requirements or otherwise limiting their business models. This influence makes it harder to promote innovative payment solutions and policy changes to adapt regulation to an ever changing and fast growing innovative and disrupting industry. In addition, the development of contactless and near-field communication ("NFC") payments in Latin America has been influenced by global device manufacturers’ restrictions on third-party access to NFC technology. While recent regulatory developments in Brazil have begun to open access, most markets in the Latin American region remain limited in their access to such technology. These restrictions constrain our ability, and that of other local payment providers, to offer uniform tap-to-pay functionality across operating systems and devices, thereby affecting competition and dynamics in mobile payments in the region.
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Any use of AI/ML technologies in our operations may present additional labor, legal, regulatory, and social risks, which could lead to additional costs and impact our competitive position
We are expanding our investment in AI/ML across the entire Company. This includes using generative AI and continuing to integrate AI capabilities into our products and services. While AI/ML can present significant benefits, it can also present risks and challenges to our business. Because AI/ML is a developing technology, legal frameworks for AI/ML governance are unsettled, quickly developing, and unpredictable. The use of AI/ML could lead to legal and regulatory investigations and enforcement actions, or may give rise to specific obligations, including required notices, consents and opt-outs, under various data privacy, protection and cybersecurity laws and regulations in a number of jurisdictions. Additionally, the integration of autonomous AI agents into our workflows introduces heightened risks related to unpredictable system behavior and reduced human oversight, which could lead to significant operational errors, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, or inaccuracies. Any failure to properly govern or control these autonomous agents could lead to regulatory non-compliance, potential legal liabilities and reputational harm arising from or agent actions. Some uses of AI/ML pose emerging ethical issues and present a number of risks that cannot be fully mitigated, including data sourcing, technology integration, bias in decision-making algorithms, discrimination or AI hallucinations, open source software issues, security and the protection of personal privacy that could down or the adoption and acceptance of AI/ML. Moreover, the AI/ML and cloud computing ecosystem is characterized by high concentration in hardware and infrastructure supply, and our ability to scale certain AI/ML models may depend on the pricing and availability of computing resources provided by a small number of global vendors, which may limit our speed or cost relative to competitors. AI/ML technology and services are highly competitive, rapidly evolving, and require significant investment, including development and operational costs, to meet the changing needs and expectations of our existing users and attract new users. Our ability to deploy and leverage certain AI/ML technologies for our products and services and for our business strategy, and to productivity across the organization, may depend on the availability and pricing of third-party equipment and technical infrastructure. Additionally, other companies may develop AI products and technologies that are similar or to our technologies or more cost- to deploy. Other companies may also have (or in the future may obtain) patents, copyrights or other proprietary rights that could prevent, limit, or with our ability to make, use, or sell our own AI/ML products and services. We may not be to compete effectively with our competitors and our strategy to integrate AI/ML technology into our products and services may also not be accepted by our customers or by other businesses in the marketplace. Furthermore, the non-deterministic nature of generative AI outputs may the reliability and trustworthiness of our products and services, which may lead to customer , brand or reputational or legal or regulatory liabilities. If the output from AI/ML in our products or services is deemed to be or , or if the use of AI/ML does not operate as anticipated or perform as promised, our business and reputation may be . The integration of AI/ML may also us to risks regarding intellectual property ownership and license rights, particularly if any copyrighted material is embedded in training models. Any on our part to effectively and utilize AI/ML to our operations or products and services may result in material impacts to our financial performance, financial results and overall business strategy.
We rely on third-party platforms, such as Google Play and Apple app stores, to access our Mercado Libre and Mercado Pago apps
Our Mercado Libre and Mercado Pago mobile applications depend on distribution through third-party app stores operated by global mobile operating system providers, primarily Apple’s App Store and Google Play. We are subject to the providers' standard developer terms and conditions, which they can modify unilaterally and with little notice. These terms govern the content, promotion, and distribution of apps and include requirements such as the mandatory use of the platform’s own payment processing system for certain digital goods and services, typically subject to commissions ranging from 15% to 30% of the transaction value, restrictions on informing users of alternative payment channels (anti-steering), and limitations on in-app distribution of digital goods or services that compete with the platform owner’s offerings. These commercial and technical restrictions may increase our operating costs, reduce pricing flexibility and limit our ability to deploy and monetize new digital products, including streaming, advertising and loyalty programs. They may also place us at a competitive disadvantage in connection with digital ecosystems that are vertically integrated and do not incur similar distribution or payment-processing fees. Additionally, regulatory and legal scrutiny of these practices has intensified globally. Recent enforcement actions in the European Union and Brazil have challenged app-store restrictions on payments, anti-steering clauses and access to NFC functionality. While the impact of these developments in Latin America remains uncertain, any future regulatory or contractual changes affecting app-store rules could alter our cost structure, distribution capabilities or competitive position. If changes to these terms or their enforcement the availability or functionality of our applications, or if we are to maintain distribution through these platforms, our business, results of operations and growth prospects could be materially affected.
Our future success depends on our ability to expand and adapt our operations to meet rapidly changing industry and technology standards in a cost-effective and timely manner
Rapid, significant and disruptive technological changes impact the industries in which we operate. Moreover, the effects of technological changes on our business are uncertain and depend on our access to global infrastructure and standards that we do not control. Our success depends on our ability to develop and incorporate new technologies and adapt to technological changes and evolving industry standards and interoperability requirements.
We plan to continue to expand our operations by expanding our services internationally and developing and promoting new and complementary services. We may have limited or no experience in our newer market segments, which can present new and difficult technology and regulatory challenges, including compliance with local data, payments and interoperability requirements. We may not succeed at expanding our operations in a cost-effective or timely manner, and our expansion efforts may not have the same or greater overall market acceptance as our current services, which could damage our reputation and diminish the value of our brands. Similarly, a lack of market acceptance of these services or our inability to generate satisfactory revenues from any expanded services to offset their cost could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
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We must constantly add new hardware, update software, enhance and improve our billing and transaction systems, and add and train new engineering and other personnel to accommodate the increased use of our website, apps and the new products and features we regularly introduce. This upgrade process is expensive and the increasing complexity and enhancement of our website results in higher costs, and ultimately may not be successful. Our revenues depend on prompt and accurate billing processes. Failure to upgrade our technology, transaction-processing capabilities, features, transaction processing systems, security infrastructure, or network infrastructure to accommodate increased traffic or transaction volume, or the increased complexity of our website could materially harm our business and our ability to collect revenue. The successful operation of these systems depends in part on reliable access to computing capacity and third-party technology providers. Any disruption or failure in our IT systems or infrastructure, or those of our third-party providers, could result in system , or in our operations, which could our business and financial results.
We may also need to enter into relationships with various strategic partners, websites, cloud providers, other online service providers, shipping and logistics companies and other third parties necessary to our business. The increased complexity of managing multiple commercial relationships could lead to execution problems that can affect current and future revenues and operating margins, as well as our reputation. The expansion of our Mercado Pago and Mercado Envios businesses into new countries may also require a close commercial relationship with one or more local banks, regulators or other intermediaries, which may prevent, delay or limit the introductions of our services in such countries or subject us to differing interoperability and compliance standards. If our users have negative experiences with, or view unfavorably, any of the companies or partners with whom we have relationships, it could cause them to stop using our products and services and negatively impact our results of operations. In addition, changes in access terms, pricing or technical specifications imposed by global device, platform or cloud providers could influence our ability to innovate or deploy new services on a consistent basis across markets.
The markets in which we operate are rapidly evolving and we may not be able to maintain our profitability
As a result of the emerging nature and related volatility of the markets and economies in the countries in which we operate, ongoing inflationary and currency-exchange volatility in certain Latin American markets, and the entry of new global and regional competitors that exert pricing and margin pressure, the increased variety and mix of services and products that we offer, including technology and AI-driven initiatives with significant upfront investment requirements, and the rapidly evolving nature of our business, it is particularly difficult for us to forecast our revenues or earnings accurately. Our current and future expense levels are based largely on our investment plans and estimates of future revenues and are, to a large extent, fixed or committed to long-term technology, logistics and infrastructure programs that cannot be scaled down quickly. We may not be able to adjust spending in a timely manner to compensate for any unexpected revenue shortfall or cost increase driven by infrastructure, energy or compute-resource pricing. Accordingly, any significant shortfall in revenues relative to our planned expenditures may have an immediate adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition and may be by increased competitive intensity and macroeconomic uncertainty in our main markets.
We may be liable for or experience reputational damage resulting from user default or the failure of our ecosystem services
Our success depends largely upon sellers accurately representing and reliably delivering the listed goods and buyers paying the agreed purchase price. We have received in the past, and anticipate that we will receive in the future, complaints from users who did not receive the purchase price or the goods agreed to be exchanged, and regarding the quality or the partial or non-delivery of purchased items. While we can suspend the accounts of users who fail to fulfill their obligations to other users, we do not have the ability to force users to meet their obligations. Our Buyer Protection Program, which is generally available to all of our buyers, has been implemented to address those situations, subject to certain conditions. As we expand the coverage of our Buyer Protection Program, the number and amount of reimbursements may increase. Effective customer service requires significant personnel expense and investment in developing programs and technology infrastructure to help customer service representatives carry out their functions, which if not properly managed, could significantly impact our profitability.
In addition, failure to handle customer complaints effectively and negative publicity generated as a result of the fraudulent or deceptive conduct of any of our sellers could damage our reputation, diminish the value of our brands and negatively impact our results of operations.
The aforementioned risks are also applicable to the broad range of services offered through Mercado Pago, where we may also receive claims that our financial products or services—such as payments, transfers, fund settlements, loans, or cash advances—do not work properly or are not fulfilled on time. These services expose us to additional risks, such as failures or delays in the settlement or accreditation of funds, operational errors in transactions or transfers, claims related to unavailable balances, disputes over charges or refunds, as well as defaults on loans or cash advances granted to merchants / buyers.
Fraudulent activity by our users could negatively impact our operating results, brand and reputation and cause the use of services to decrease
We are subject to the risk of fraudulent activity by our users, including fraudulent and illicit sales, money laundering, bank fraud, fraud from means of payment entities, employee fraud, third parties providers' fraud and online securities fraud. Measures to detect and reduce the occurrence of fraudulent activities are complex and require continuous improvement, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully and accurately detect, prevent or deter fraud, particularly new and continually evolving forms of fraud. As our business grows, the cost of remediating activity, including customer reimbursements, may materially increase and could affect our operating results. In addition, users’ or potential activities when using our platforms or payment solutions we offer could us to civil or liability and could have a material effect on our financial performance, our business or our reputation.
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We incur losses from claims of customers who did not authorize a purchase, from buyer fraud and from erroneous transmissions. Third parties have attempted, and will likely continue to attempt, to abuse access to and misuse our payments solution to commit fraud by, among other things, creating fictitious accounts using stolen or synthetic identities or personal information, making transactions with stolen financial instruments or fraudulently inducing users of our platforms into engaging in fraudulent transactions. Due to the digital nature of our payments services, third parties may perform abusive schemes or fraud attacks that are often difficult to detect and may reach a scale that would otherwise not be possible in physical transactions. Numerous and evolving schemes and of our payments service could subject us to significant costs and liabilities, require us to change our business practices, lead to of customer confidence in, or decreased use of, our products and services, our reputation and brands, and the attention of management from the operation of our business. In addition to the direct costs of such , if the are related to credit card transactions and become , they could result in Mercado Pago the right to accept credit cards for payment, which could affect our business.
We are subject to consumer trends and could lose revenue if certain items become less popular or if we fail to meet customer demand
Our future revenues depend on continued demand for the types of goods that we sell, that users list on the Mercado Libre Marketplace or that users pay for with Mercado Pago on or off the Mercado Libre Marketplace. Demand for our products and services can fluctuate significantly for many reasons, including due to perceived availability, consumer trends, the adoption of new technologies (such as AI-driven tools) that may bypass our marketplace search results, seasonality, promotions, product launches, defective products or unforeseeable events, such as in response to natural or man-made disasters, public health crises (including pandemics), extreme weather (including as a result of climate change), geopolitical events, or changes in or uncertainty about macro-economic conditions, which could impact the overall volume of transactions on our platforms. A decline in the demand for or popularity of certain items sold through the Mercado Libre Marketplace without an increase in demand for different items could result in reduced revenues.
Our ability to predict and adapt to changing tastes and preferences depends on many factors, including, but not limited to, obtaining accurate and relevant data on customer preferences, emphasizing relevant merchandise categories, effectively managing our inventory levels, and implementing competitive and effective pricing and promotion strategies. Although it is difficult to accurately forecast consumer trends and demand, we strive to predict these trends using the methods described above as overstocking or understocking products we sell could lead to lower sales, missed opportunities and excessive markdowns, any of which could have a material impact on our business and operating results or reputation. Failure to accurately forecast consumer trends and demand could significantly affect our revenue and our future growth.
Manufacturers may limit distribution of their products by distributors, prevent distributors from selling through us or encourage governments to limit e-commerce
Manufacturers may attempt to enforce minimum resale price maintenance arrangements to prevent distributors from selling on our websites or on the internet generally, or at prices that would make our site unattractive relative to other alternatives or may impose selective-distribution or platform-parity requirements that restrict authorized sellers from offering their products on open marketplaces such as ours. Such practices, if adopted broadly by manufacturers, could reduce the range of products offered online and thereby influence overall marketplace dynamics. Increased competition or anti-Internet distribution policies and new brand-control strategies, including algorithmic price monitoring or differentiated fulfillment incentives, could result in reduced operating margins, loss of market share and diminished value of our brand. In order to respond to changes in the competitive environment, we may, from time to time, make pricing, service or marketing decisions or acquisitions that may be controversial with and lead to dissatisfaction among some of our sellers, which could reduce activity on our websites and harm our profitability. In addition, regulatory authorities in several Latin American jurisdictions have begun to vertical-distribution and online-channel restrictions, and any such or enforcement trends could affect the way manufacturers and marketplaces interact in the region.
Our failure or the failure of our partners to manage Mercado Pago users’ funds properly could harm our business
Our ability to manage and account accurately for Mercado Pago users’ funds requires a high level of internal controls. As Mercado Pago continues to grow, we must strengthen our internal controls accordingly. Mercado Pago’s success requires significant consumer confidence in our ability to handle large and growing transaction volumes and amounts of customer funds. Any failure to maintain necessary controls or to properly manage customer funds could severely reduce customer use of Mercado Pago, and we could be found to be in violation of applicable laws and regulations, be subject to fines or other penalties or forced to cease providing this service.
Mercado Pago offers certain of its users the option to use the balances stored on their Mercado Pago digital accounts to invest in certain investment products including low-risk investment funds (money market fund equivalents). For the purposes of offering such intermediated investment functionality, in some cases, Mercado Pago has entered into diverse contractual relationships with third parties to serve as the managers of the investment funds and the facilitators of all associated investment services, including but not limited to the execution of investment orders. In such cases, the scope of Mercado Pago’s involvement in these services is generally strictly limited to (i) providing the technology infrastructure and processing charges and payments from users that use their balances held with Mercado Pago to invest, and (ii) sending the appropriate instructions to our investment partners. The third party providers have complete decision-making authority over the funds and their investment strategies. A disruption in our relationships with such third party providers or any of the services they provide to our users could adversely affect our customers’ confidence in our business. In addition, the value of the investments made by our users in the respective investment funds may fluctuate over time as a result of factors not in our control, such as market conditions and investment decisions made by our third party providers. If there is a disruption in the services provided by our third party providers or the investments made by our users otherwise decrease in value, our users may try to pursue or legal actions us, which could affect our reputation and results of operations.
Any failure by us or by such third party providers to comply with financial and capital markets regulatory frameworks, or any deficiency in operational, technological, know-your-customer ("KYC"), suitability or anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing ("AML"/"CFT") controls in connection with these products, could result in regulatory investigations or sanctions, including fines, restrictions on activities, suspension or cancellation of authorizations, as well as civil claims by users, all of which could adversely affect our reputation, business and results of operations.
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We rely on banks and investment funds that acquire Mercado Pago’s receivables and payment processors to fund transactions, and changes to card association fees, rules or practices may adversely affect our business
Mercado Pago relies on banks, investment funds or payment processors to process the funding of Mercado Pago transactions and Mercado Libre Marketplace collections, and we must pay a fee for this service. From time to time, card associations may increase the interchange fees they charge for each transaction using one of their cards. Card processors have the right to pass on to us any increases in interchange fees or their own fees for processing. These increased fees increase the operating costs of Mercado Pago, reduce our profit margins from Mercado Pago operations and, to a lesser degree, affect the operating margins of the Mercado Libre Marketplace. We also offer Mercado Pago prepaid and debit cards in Brazil and Mexico, respectively (both under VISA brand), and prepaid cards in Argentina and Chile (both under MasterCard brand); and Mercado Pago credit cards in Brazil (under VISA brand), Mexico and Argentina (under MasterCard brand). If any of these companies were to be unwilling or unable to provide these services to us, or if they are willing to provide these services but at less favorable terms, our business and results of operations would be adversely affected.
We are also subject to, or required by processors to comply with, card association operating rules. The card associations and their member banks set and interpret the card rules. Some of those member banks compete with Mercado Pago. Card companies could adopt new operating rules or re-interpret existing rules that we or Mercado Pago’s processors may find difficult or even impossible to follow. As a result, we could lose our ability to provide Mercado Pago customers the option of using debit, prepaid or credit cards to fund their payments and MercadoLibre users the option to pay their fees using a debit, prepaid or credit card, which could be materially adverse to our business.
We could lose the right to accept credit cards or pay fines if card processors determine that users are using Mercado Pago to engage in illegal or “high risk” activities or if users generate a large amount of chargebacks. Accordingly, we are continually working to prevent “high risk” merchants from using Mercado Pago. Additionally, we may be unable to access financing in the credit and capital markets at reasonable rates to fund our Mercado Pago operations, and for that reason, our profitability and total payments volume could materially decline.
The failure of the financial institutions with which we conduct business may have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition
If the condition of the financial services industry deteriorates or becomes weakened for an extended period of time, any of the following factors could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition:
■ Disruptions to the capital markets or the banking system may materially adversely affect the value of investments or bank deposits we currently consider safe, liquid or that provide a reasonable return, and we may be unable to find suitable alternative investments, which could result in lower interest income or longer investment horizons;
■ We may be required to increase the installment and financing fees we charge to customers for purchases made in installments or cease offering installment purchases altogether, each of which may result in a lower volume of transactions completed;
■ We may be unable to access financing in the credit and capital markets at reasonable rates. Due to the nature of our Mercado Pago and Mercado Libre Marketplace businesses, we generate high credit card receivables and consumer and merchant loans that from time to time we sell to financial institutions, and accordingly, lack of access to credit or significant changes to the terms of any existing credit, or bank liquidations could cause us to experience severe difficulties; and
■ The failure of financial institution counterparties to honor their obligations to us under credit instruments could jeopardize our ability to rely on and benefit from those instruments. Our ability to replace those instruments on the same or similar terms may be limited under difficult market conditions.
A rise in interest rates may negatively affect our Mercado Pago payment volume
We offer users the ability to pay for goods purchased in installments using Mercado Pago in some of the countries where we operate. In 2025 and 2024, installment payments represented 19.0% and 20.3%, respectively, of Mercado Pago’s total payment volume. To subsidize the cost of the installment payment feature, from time to time we pay interest to discount credit card receivables, securitize credit card receivables through trusts or finance Mercado Pago business through financial debt. In all of these cases, if interest rates increase, we may have to raise the installment fees we charge to users that would likely have a negative effect on Mercado Pago’s total payment volume.
Changes in Mercado Pago’s funding mix and ticket mix could adversely affect Mercado Pago’s results
Mercado Pago pays significant transaction fees when customers fund payment transactions using debit or credit cards or through unaffiliated third-party providers, nominal fees when customers fund transactions from their bank accounts, and no fees when customers fund transactions from an existing Mercado Pago account balance. Our financial performance remains highly sensitive to changes in the proportion of payments funded with credit cards, which we refer to as funding mix sensitivity. Customers may prefer to pay with credit cards rather than bank transfers for various reasons, including due to the ability to pay in installments, dispute charges (including chargebacks), earn rewards and defer payment, or due to a reluctance to provide bank account information to Mercado Pago. Certain costs and transaction fees that Mercado Pago pays in connection with specific payment methods are fixed on a per-transaction basis regardless of ticket size, while others vary by card network. We generally charge a fee calculated as a percentage of the transaction amount. As a result of these fixed cost dynamics, if we receive a larger percentage of low-ticket transactions or a greater volume of payments routed over higher-cost card networks, our profit margins may decline, and we may need to raise prices, which in turn could affect transaction volumes.
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Our lending solution exposes us to the credit risk of our merchants and consumers, among other risks
Our lending solution is offered to certain merchants and consumers, and the financial success of this product depends on the effective management of the credit-related risk. We assess the credit risk of merchants and/or consumers seeking a loan based on an internally-developed risk model which, among other factors, may not accurately predict their creditworthiness due to inaccurate assumptions about the particular merchant and/or consumer or the economic environment or limited product history, among other aspects. The accuracy of the risk model and our ability to manage credit risk may also be affected by legal or regulatory changes (e.g., bankruptcy laws and minimum payment regulations), competitors’ actions, changes in consumer behavior, funding resources, changes in the economic environment, changes in regulation on interest rates and other factors.
A decline in economic, political, market, health and social conditions could impact our users as well, and their decisions could reduce the number of cards, accounts, and credit lines of their account holders, which ultimately impact our revenues. Any events or conditions that impair the functioning of the financial markets, tighten the credit market, or lead to a downgrade of our current credit rating could increase our future borrowing costs and impair our ability to access the capital and credit markets on favorable terms, which could affect our liquidity and capital resources, or significantly increase our cost of capital. Similar to other businesses with significant exposure to credit losses, we face the risk that our lending users may default on their payment obligations, making the receivables uncollectible and creating the risk of potential write-offs, which could negatively impact our liquidity. Any of these events could adversely affect our business and results of operation.
The funding and growth of our lending business are directly related to interest rates; a rise in interest rates may negatively affect our lending business and results of operations.
We face significant risks related to the ongoing reliability of our logistics network and shipping service
In certain countries where we operate, we offer users our Mercado Envios shipping service through integration with local carriers. We generally pay local carriers directly for their shipping costs, and separately decide the shipping costs paid by our customers. The decision to raise the shipping fees charged to users may have a negative effect on Mercado Envios’ shipping volume, and the decision not to do so may result in a decrease in the operating margins of our commerce operations.
We rely on a number of local carriers (through non-exclusivity agreements) to receive the inventories for our first-party business and on third parties to ship orders to customers. The unavailability of the services of local carriers in certain regions with high demand could negatively affect our ability to make shipping services available to our customers, which could in turn have a material adverse effect on our shipping service, operating results, and financial condition.
Failure to successfully operate our fulfillment network may also negatively affect our business
Through our logistics solution, Mercado Envios, we offer sellers on our platform fulfillment and temporary warehousing services, including maintaining inventories of third parties that sell products through our platform. We also use fulfillment and temporary warehousing services for our first-party business. As we continue to add fulfillment centers, our fulfillment network may become more complex, and the operation of such centers may present significant challenges, including organized crime and drug dealers operating in certain regions where we provide logistic solutions, increasing the complexity of tracking inventories and the operation of our fulfillment network. Our failure to accurately forecast customer demand, seller demand for storage, staffing and properly handle inventories and commercial relationships with third parties could result in excess or insufficient fulfillment capacity, service interruptions, an inability to optimize platform fulfillment or staffing, unexpected costs and may adversely affect our reputation or results of operations. Any supply chain constraint that affects us, our merchants or vendors could also adversely affect our ability to operate our fulfillment network effectively.
We offer to sellers our Fulfillment Protection Program for any damage or loss of seller’s inventories as a result of using our fulfillment network service, subject to certain conditions. We may in the future receive additional requests from sellers requesting reimbursement through this program or threatening legal action against us if we do not reimburse them, which could materially adversely affect our business and financial condition.
We continue to build new warehouses to manage the increasing demand of our logistics solution. These construction efforts are subject to a risk of delay as well as risks relating to the quality of the construction and regulatory requirements, which could increase our costs and negatively impact our ability to grow capacity in time to adequately meet demand.
Problems that affect our service providers could potentially adversely affect us as well
A number of parties provide services to us or to our users. These services include the hosting of our servers, shipping and the postal and payments infrastructures that allow users to deliver and pay for goods and services, in addition to paying their Mercado Libre Marketplace bills. Financial, regulatory, or other problems that might prevent these companies from providing services to us or our users could reduce the number of listings on our websites or make completing transactions on our ecosystem more difficult, which may harm our business. Any security breach at one of these companies could also affect our customers and harm our business.
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If we are unable to compete effectively for advertising spend, or if our merchants reduce advertising spend, our business and results of operations could be materially harmed
We have developed a growing advertising business on our platform. If we are unable to compete effectively for advertising spend, or if merchants reduce advertising spend due to adverse macroeconomic conditions or for other reasons, our business and results of operations could be materially harmed. Our ability to maintain or increase advertising revenue through our platform will depend on our ability to create more value for advertisers (such as increased numbers of users, increased transactions, enhanced monetization and stronger brand awareness) than our competitors. Some of our current and potential competitors have greater resources, larger customer bases and greater brand recognition in certain jurisdictions, particularly with respect to our newly launched products and services. Failing to provide superior value or deliver advertisements effectively and competitively could harm our reputation, financial condition and operating results. Changes to our advertising policies and data privacy practices, or those of other companies, may affect the advertising revenues. In addition, the existence and development of technologies that block advertisements online or affect our ability to customize advertisements could our advertising business.
We may not realize benefits from recent or future strategic investments, acquisitions of businesses, technologies, services or products, despite their capital outlay and potential dilution to our stockholders
We intend to continue to enter into a wide array of potential strategic transactions, including strategic investments, acquiring businesses, technologies, services or products, as appropriate opportunities arise. We may not, however, be able to identify, negotiate or finance such future acquisitions successfully or at favorable valuations, or to effectively integrate these acquisitions with our current business. Strategic transactions may involve significant additional challenges, uncertainties and risks, including, but not limited to, unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures, challenges of integrating new employees, systems, technologies, and business cultures; failure to develop the acquired business adequately; disruption of our ongoing operations and diversion of our management’s attention; inadequate data security, cybersecurity and operational and information technology resilience; to identify, or our of, commitments, liabilities, and other risks associated with acquired businesses or assets; and potential exposure to new or increased regulatory oversight and uncertain or evolving legal, regulatory and compliance requirements; potential reputational risks that could arise from transactions with, or investments in, companies involved in new or developing businesses or industries, which may be subject to uncertain or evolving legal, regulatory and compliance requirements; of the transaction to advance our business strategy and of its anticipated benefits to materialize; potential of goodwill or other acquisition-related intangible assets; and the potential for our acquisitions to result in dilutive issuances of our equity securities or significant additional debt. Strategic transactions may also heighten many of the risks described in this “Risk Factors” section.
Acquisitions could result in potentially dilutive issuances of equity securities, the incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities and/or amortization expenses related to intangible assets and impairment of goodwill, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Any future acquisitions might require us to obtain additional equity or debt financing, which might not be available on favorable terms, or at all. If debt financing for potential future acquisitions is unavailable, we may determine to issue shares of our common stock or preferred stock in connection with such an acquisition, and any such issuance could result in the dilution of our common stock.
We depend on key personnel, the loss of which could have a material adverse effect on us
Our performance depends substantially on the continued services and on the performance of our senior management and other key personnel. Our ability to retain and motivate these and other officers and employees, as well as our ability to successfully transition key roles, is fundamental to our performance.
Our future success also depends on our ability to identify, attract, hire, train, retain and motivate other highly skilled technical, managerial, marketing and customer service personnel. Competition for these personnel is intense, and we cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully attract and retain sufficiently qualified personnel. In addition, changes we make to our current and future work environments may not meet the needs or expectations of our employees or may be perceived as less favorable compared to other companies, which could adversely affect our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel. Failure to successfully hire, train, manage, and retain sufficient and qualified personnel to meet our needs, as well as successfully transition key roles can be inherently difficult to manage, strain our operations, increase payroll and other costs, and harm our business and reputation.
We may have inadequate business insurance coverage, which would require us to spend significant resources in the event of a disruption of our services or other contingency
Even though we have business insurance coverage to face major contingencies affecting our services and goods, it may be inadequate to compensate for our losses, its coverage may be limited, or the amount of our insurance may be less than the related loss or we may be unable to recover all or part of the insured amounts due to the financial condition or insolvency of our insurance providers. Any business disruption, litigation, system failure or natural or man-made disaster may cause us to incur substantial costs and divert resources, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operation and financial condition.
Our debt instruments contain restrictions that limit our flexibility in operating our business, and changes by any rating agency to our outlook or credit rating could negatively affect us
The terms of our senior unsecured notes issued in January 2021 and December 2025, the revolving credit agreement and certain collateralized debt under securitization transactions contain, and any debt instruments we enter in the future may contain, covenants that restrict or could restrict, among other things, our business and operations. Failure to pay amounts due under a debt instrument or a breach of any of its covenants may result in the acceleration of the indebtedness (subject in certain cases to a grace or cure period). Moreover, any such acceleration and required repayment of, or default in respect of, any of our indebtedness could, in turn, constitute an event of default under other debt instruments, thereby resulting in the acceleration and required repayment of other indebtedness we may have. Any of these events could materially adversely affect our liquidity and financial condition.
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Additionally, our reliance on structured credit vehicles (special purpose entities used to securitize credit cards receivable or loans receivable) with a concentrated investor base exposes us to redemption, refinancing, and pricing risks; the loss or reduced participation of one or more key investors could constrain our funding capacity, increase our cost of capital, and require adjustments to our credit origination strategy.
In addition, changes by any rating agency to our outlook or credit rating could negatively affect the value of both our debt and equity securities and increase our borrowing costs. If our credit ratings are downgraded or other negative action by rating agencies is taken, the interest rates payable by us under our indebtedness may increase. In addition, any downgrades to our credit ratings may affect our ability to obtain additional financing in the future and the terms of any such financing. Any of these factors could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
We are exposed to the value of digital assets that may be subject to volatile market prices and unique risks of loss
We have used a portion of our cash reserve to purchase financial assets or other alternative reserve assets that are exposed to the value of digital assets and we may continue acquiring and holding them from time to time in the future.
The prices of digital assets have been, and may continue to be, highly volatile, including as a result of various associated risks and uncertainties. For example, the prevalence of such assets is a relatively recent development, and their long-term adoption by investors, consumers and businesses is unpredictable. Moreover, these assets rely on technology for their creation, existence and transactional validation, and their decentralization may subject their integrity to the threat of malicious attacks and technological obsolescence. The status of such assets for a variety of regulatory purposes is unclear and may change in the future.
As digital assets, including Bitcoin, have grown in popularity and market size, there has been an increasing focus on the extent to which such digital assets can be used to launder the proceeds of illegal activities or fund criminal or terrorist activities and/or entities subject to sanctions regimes. If we are found to have engaged in transactions involving Bitcoin or other digital assets with persons that have used such digital assets to launder money or persons subject to sanctions, we may be subject to regulatory obligations, proceedings or other actions, and our further transactions or dealings in Bitcoin or other digital assets may be restricted or prohibited. The rapidly evolving regulatory landscape with respect to digital assets may subject us to additional costs, such as the implementation of additional and potentially costly controls or other actions.
As intangible assets without centralized issuers or governing bodies, digital assets have been, and may in the future be, subject to security breaches, cyberattacks or other malicious activities, as well as human errors or computer malfunctions, that may result in operational problems or the loss, compromise or destruction of, or our inability to access, cryptographic private keys needed to access such assets, which may be irreversible and could adversely affect the value of our digital assets and an investment in our Company. While we have taken reasonable measures to secure any digital assets, if such threats are realized or the measures or controls we implement to secure our digital assets fail, it could result in a partial or total misappropriation or of our digital assets, and our financial condition and operating results may be affected.
Increasing scrutiny and evolving expectations from customers, regulators, investors, and other stakeholders with respect to our environmental, social and governance practices may impose additional costs on us or expose us to new or additional risks
We publish an annual integrated impact report, that describes, among others, our policies, practices and initiatives across a variety of environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) matters, including our contribution to socio-economic development, inclusion and financial education, human capital management and efforts to reduce our environmental impact. The implementation of these initiatives is complex and subject to contingencies, dependencies, and in certain cases, reliance on third-party verification and/or performance, and may require considerable investments. Further, these efforts may impose additional costs and expose us to new risks, including increased scrutiny from customers, regulators, investors and other stakeholders related to our ESG practices and disclosure. Stakeholder expectations regarding ESG matters continue to evolve and are becoming increasingly divergent among and within stakeholders. For example, some of our Marketplace customers may elect to reduce purchases from us if we are unable to verify that our performance and products meet the specifications of responsible sourcing programs. Investor advocacy groups, investment funds and institutional investors are also increasingly focused on these practices, especially as they relate to the environment, health and safety, diversity, labor conditions and human rights. If we are targeted by those who disagree with our public positions on ESG issues, or if we do not otherwise manage ESG-related expectations across investors and other stakeholders, it could stakeholder trust, impact our reputation, subject us to or shareholder activism, which could affect our business and reputation.
In addition, there can be no assurance that our current policies, practices, reporting frameworks and principles will be in compliance with any new environmental and social laws and regulations that may be promulgated in the U.S. and other jurisdictions. New government regulations or guidance could also result in new, curtailed or more stringent forms of ESG oversight and expanding mandatory and voluntary reporting, taxes, diligence and disclosure. The costs of changing any of our current practices to comply with any new legal and regulatory requirements in the U.S. and other jurisdictions in which we operate, which could result in differing or competing regulations and standards across these markets, may be substantial. Furthermore, industry and market practices may further develop to become even more robust than what is required under any new laws and regulations, and we may have to expend significant efforts and resources to keep up with market trends and stay competitive among our peers. Increased ESG related compliance costs for us as well as among Marketplace merchants and vendors and various other parties within our supply chain could result in increases to our overall operational costs.
Failure or perceived failure to adapt to achieve our goals or commitments, or comply with regulatory requirements or investor or stakeholder expectations and standards could negatively impact our reputation, ability to do business with certain partners and our stock price. Government, media or activist pressure to limit emissions could negatively impact consumers’ perceptions of our products and services, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, and the actions taken by governments and other actors to reduce emissions could impose costs that could materially affect our financial condition. In addition, our sustainability initiatives may be unsuccessful for a variety of reasons, including if we are unable to realize the expected benefits of new technologies or if we do not successfully plan or execute new strategies, which in turn could harm our business or damage our reputation.
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There are potential risks related to our cryptocurrency buy, hold and sell feature
There are potential risks to MercadoLibre in connection with a feature of our Mercado Pago services that gives customers the ability to access—through our Mercado Pago platform—digital-assets trading and custody services that are rendered by third parties, which allow users to buy, hold, sell and transfer certain global cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.
For our buy, hold and sell Mercado Pago feature, we rely on third party service providers to perform several functions in connection therewith. Such service providers (“SPs”) provide our customers digital-assets exchange services (whereby customers can buy and sell certain digital-assets) as well as digital-assets custody services. The SPs are also responsible for securing our customers’ digital-assets and protecting them from loss or theft. We, in turn, provide a platform that acts as an interface for our customers to access the SPs’ services. A disruption in our relationship with the SPs or in any of the services provided by them to users could adversely affect our customers’ confidence in our digital-assets offerings through the SPs and, by extension, our business.
Our SPs rely on computer software, hardware and telecommunications infrastructure and networking to provide services to our customers related to the token and digital-assets exchange and custody services. These computer-based services are subject to disruption, delay and/or failure, which could cause our users to lose access to our Mercado Pago platform or to the SPs’ services. Any such technical issues could negatively affect our customers’ confidence in the digital-assets offering.
In addition, the SPs maintain the cryptographic private keys that allow access to the digital accounts where our customers’ digital-assets are held in custody. While we have taken steps to make these offerings secure, digital assets in the custody of various other custodians have in the past been hacked or lost. In the event that those private keys are lost, destroyed, unable to be accessed or in any way compromised and no back up of such private keys exists, the SPs will not be able to access the digital-assets held on behalf of our customers in their custody. The SPs’ failure to safeguard the digital-assets owned by our customers may result in losses to our customers, which could adversely affect our customers’ confidence in digital-assets and negatively affect our business. In addition, the decentralized and pseudonymous nature of digital assets raises novel compliance risks and challenges; the SPs’ failure to maintain necessary controls or safeguard transactions—for example, with sanctioned parties— due to process or control oversight could lead to regulatory and reputational for the Company.
The market perception and regulatory environment concerning digital assets, including cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, are uncertain and evolving. Jurisdictions where we operate may enact legislation subjecting us to additional money transmitter or other regulations in connection with digital-assets exchange services or may require us to obtain licenses or regulatory authorizations in connection with these activities. Any changes to, or failure to comply with, these laws and regulations, or any laws or regulations affecting services that involve a partnership with a custodian and blockchain infrastructure providers, may negatively impact our ability to enable our customers to buy, hold and sell digital-assets in the future and may adversely affect our business.
Natural disasters, climate change, geopolitical events, global health epidemics or pandemics, transportation disruptions and catastrophic events could materially adversely affect our financial performance
The occurrence of one or more natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tropical storms, floods, fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, typhoons; weather conditions such as major or extended winter storms, droughts and tornadoes, whether as a result of climate change or otherwise; geopolitical events (such as international trade disputes and the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East; global health epidemics or pandemics or other contagious outbreaks (such as COVID-19 and its variants); transportation disruptions that affect transportation and warehousing providers (for instance, labor disputes and work stoppages); and catastrophic events, such as war, civil unrest, terrorist attacks or other acts of violence, including active shooter situations, acts of vandalism or terrorism, labor or trade disputes, and similar events in countries in which we operate, in which our users are located, or in other areas of the world could affect our operations and financial performance.
Such events could result (whether directly or indirectly) in physical damage to, or the complete loss of, one or more of our facilities, loss or spoilage of inventory, limits on our ability to receive the inventories of third parties efficiently and ship orders to customers, business interruption, the lack of an adequate work force in a market, the unavailability of our platforms to our users, changes in the purchasing patterns of consumers and in consumers’ disposable income, the temporary or long-term supply chain and logistics disruption, the disruption of critical infrastructure and communication systems, banking systems, utility services or energy availability.
Furthermore, the long-term impacts of climate change, whether involving physical risks (such as extreme weather conditions, drought, or rising sea levels) or transition risks (such as regulatory or technology changes) are expected to be widespread and unpredictable. Physical risk may result in: disruption of operations and distribution, as well as higher costs, due to increased frequency and intensity of severe storms, wildfires, high-speed wind, flooding, sea level rise, drought precipitation and rising mean temperatures; increased insurance premiums due to increased exposure to physical weather perils; and increased heat stress to our workforce and increased costs throughout operations, supply chain and distribution due to greater cooling needs. These events and their impacts could materially adversely affect our business.
Legal and Regulatory Risks
We are subject to extensive government regulation and oversight. Failure to comply with existing and future rules and regulations in the jurisdictions in which we operate could adversely affect the operations of one or more of our businesses in those jurisdictions
Our business is subject to the laws, rules, regulations and policies of the countries in which we operate, as well as the legal interpretation of such regulations by administrative bodies and the judiciary of those countries, including, but not limited to, those listed below. Further, because our services and products are available in a number of countries, certain foreign jurisdictions may claim that we are required to comply with their laws. The expansion of our business may also result in increased regulatory oversight and enforcement, as well as licensing requirements.
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Any changes to, enforcement of, failure, or perceived failure to comply with these regulations, or the enactment of new regulations and legislation, could result in lawsuits, civil or criminal penalties, or fines against the Company or its subsidiaries, forfeiture of significant assets, an outright or partial restriction on our operations, additional compliance and licensure requirements, an adverse impact on our business, results of operations or financial position, or may otherwise force us to change the way we or our users do business, which could adversely affect the operations and reputation of our businesses in those jurisdictions. We have been and we expect that we will continue to be involved in disputes or regulatory inquiries that arise in the ordinary course of business, the number and significance of which has increased as our business has expanded. The media, political and regulatory scrutiny that we may face could increase or amplify these risks.
Anticorruption
Our operations in most of the countries where we operate are subject to risks related to compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) and other applicable U.S. and other local laws prohibiting corrupt payments to government officials and other third parties.
To fulfill our commitment to the applicable regulations in a sustainable and effective manner and to prevent and control anyone in our ecosystem from making or offering improper payments or anything of value that could be perceived as a bribe, or that is intended to obtain an improper benefit or preferential treatment for us, we have an Anti Corruption Policy and a risk-based Anti-Corruption Program designed to prevent, detect and remedy acts of corruption.
Internet Services Regulation
There is uncertainty in many of the countries where we operate with respect to the liability of Internet service providers, the application of existing regulations to our business as they relate to, or the enactment of new regulations or legislation relating to, issues such as e-commerce, electronic or mobile payments, information requirements for Internet providers, data collection, data protection, data security, data localization, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, AI/ML (e.g. in relation to risk analysis) governing anti-money laundering, taxation, reporting obligations, consumer protection and businesses. This uncertainty could negatively affect our users’ perception and use of our services, and could result in significant expense if we have to defend cases in an unclear legal environment.
Privacy and Data Protection
We process significant amounts of personal data from users, employees, service providers and partners across multiple jurisdictions. Our ability to collect, use, store, and transfer such data lawfully is essential to our operations. Privacy and data protection laws continue to expand in scope and complexity worldwide, including in Latin America, where countries such as Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina have enacted or are considering stricter frameworks governing processing of personal data (including cross-border transfers of the same). Moreover, the interpretation and application of many existing or recently enacted privacy and data protection laws and regulations are uncertain and fluid, and it is possible that such laws and regulations may be interpreted or applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our existing data management practices or the features of our products and services. Any such new laws or regulations, any changes to existing laws and regulations and any such interpretation or application may affect demand for our products and services, impact our ability to effectively transfer data across borders in support of our business operations or increase the cost of providing our products and services. Complying with these varying and sometimes conflicting rules also requires continuous investment in governance, systems, and monitoring, and failure to do so could result in substantial fines, or reputational .
We could also be required to fundamentally change our business activities and practices, or modify our products and services, which could have an adverse effect on our business. We expect to allocate significant additional resources to prevent security or privacy breaches and to address issues caused by any breaches. In the event of a personal data breach, we may be required to notify the relevant authorities (including the SEC, central banks and other regulators overseeing our fintech operations) and/or the affected individuals. Such mandatory disclosures could lead to negative publicity, damage our reputation, devalue our brands and may cause our current and prospective customers to lose confidence in the effectiveness of our privacy program and data security measures. The use of AI/ML, including potential inadvertent disclosure of confidential information or personal data, could also lead to legal and regulatory investigations and enforcement actions, as well as reputational harm or may give rise to specific obligations, including required notices, consents and opt-outs, under various data privacy, protection and cybersecurity laws and regulations in a number of jurisdictions.
Rapid technological developments—including the use of AI/ML and cloud computing—further increase compliance challenges. These technologies can derive or infer sensitive personal data and may be subject to emerging transparency, fairness, and accountability requirements. As we expand our use of AI/ML and automated decision-making, regulators in the region and globally are developing specific rules that may impose limits on high-risk AI systems, mandate algorithmic impact assessments, impose specific obligations (including required notices, consents and opt-outs), or require human oversight. Some of these measures could restrict or delay the deployment of AI-enabled products or increase compliance costs.
We expect that Latin American jurisdictions will adopt new AI and data governance regulations inspired by the EU AI Act and similar international models, potentially introducing stricter obligations on risk classification, data quality, and cross-border data management. Such developments may affect how we design, train, and deploy AI systems and manage user information. Divergent local requirements may also limit our ability to maintain unified global systems or practices.
Failure or perceived failure to comply with evolving privacy or AI obligations could result in regulatory enforcement, litigation, or loss of trust from users and partners. Even where we believe our practices are compliant, new interpretations or public scrutiny could lead to operational disruption and reputational damage. The financial and operational costs of remediation or adaptation to new standards may be material.
We remain committed to maintaining strong privacy and data protection standards, proactively monitoring legal developments, and embedding privacy and AI governance across our organization. However, given the speed of regulatory change and technological evolution, there can be no assurance that future obligations will not exceed our ability to adapt in a timely or cost-effective manner.
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Consumer Protection
Government and consumer protection agencies have in the past received complaints against us from users of our ecosystem. These complaints are small as a percentage of our total transactions, but they could become large in aggregate (absolute) numbers over time.
Taxation
As far as taxation and the digital economy is concerned, many taxing jurisdictions and international organizations are moving towards the implementation of changes to tax laws and policies in order to address so-called base erosion, profit shifting and other tax challenges arising from the digitalization of the economy. These changes in tax regimes may impact e-commerce and internet based companies, including reforms related to withholding regimes, corporate income taxation, indirect taxes and also to value-added taxes. In addition, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development reached agreement among various countries to implement a minimum 15% effective tax rate on certain multinational enterprises, commonly referred to as Pillar Two. Certain countries in which we operate are actively considering adopting parts of the Pillar Two framework. The governments of Spain and Brazil passed laws adopting the framework in December 2024. See "Item 7 – Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Results of operations - Income tax" for further information. We are continuing to evaluate the impact of these proposed legislative changes as new guidance becomes available. Legislative changes could impact our effective tax rate and tax liabilities.
In addition, Brazil is currently undergoing a tax reform to replace several local taxes with a dual VAT system. The new system will become effective in 2026 and will face a transitional period until 2033, with the progressive charging of the new taxes and the extinction of the ones currently in place, as well as the implementation of the split payment system. For additional information regarding this and other Brazilian tax reforms, please refer to Note 2 – Summary of significant accounting policies - Sales tax - Brazilian Tax Reform - Consumption taxation and Note 13 – Income taxes - Brazilian Tax Reform - Income tax.
Furthermore, we have a complex corporate structure, with entities that are subject to taxation in multiple jurisdictions, and the management of that structure and the transactions among our entities creates potential tax exposures for us in multiple jurisdictions, including the U.S. as well as the jurisdictions where our subsidiaries operate. Further, any changes to, suspension or revocation of, any tax incentive regimes or other tax benefits that we may receive, including tax benefits under the Argentina knowledge-based economy promotional regime and under the Brazilian social security contribution regime and ICMS (Imposto sobre Circulação de Mercadorias, Serviços de Transporte Interestadual, Intermunicipal e Comunicação) tax incentive benefits, could have a material adverse effect in our business, results of operation and financial position.
Competition
We may be subject to private claims, lawsuits, regulatory and government investigations, other proceedings and orders involving allegations that our actions may violate antitrust or competition laws, or otherwise constitute unfair competition. Regulations concerning competition and digital platforms continue to evolve in the jurisdictions where we operate, and authorities may examine a wide range of conduct, including data use, interoperability and commercial relationships with sellers, buyers or partners. In August 2025, the Mexican antitrust authority (Comisión Federal de Competencia Económica, now the Comisión Nacional Antimonopolio) concluded its proceeding regarding alleged barriers to competition in the e-commerce market in Mexico. The authority identified potential concerns related to the operation of Buy Box algorithms and the integration of logistics services by Amazon Mexico and Mercado Libre, however, no corrective measures were imposed and the proceeding was closed. Governments and other regulators in Latin America continue to monitor competition in digital markets and may initiate new reviews or inquiries in the future.
Private claims have been and may continue to be brought against us in the future for potential breaches of antitrust or competition law and/or unfair competition. Contractual agreements and/or our business practices with buyers, sellers, financial partners or other companies could give rise to regulatory action, antitrust investigations or litigation in the jurisdictions where we operate. Such claims and investigations, even if without foundation, typically are very expensive to defend, involve negative publicity and substantial diversion of our management's time and effort, and could result in significant judgments against us or in commitments, remedies or modifications to our business practices. They could also lead to additional compliance costs or adjustments to certain aspects of our operations. Competition authorities in several Latin American jurisdictions continue to cooperate and exchange information on digital-market issues, which may lead to simultaneous or coordinated reviews of similar matters.
Banking, Money Transmission and Domestic or Cross-Border Electronic Funds Transfer
A number of jurisdictions where we operate have enacted legislation regulating money deposits, transmitters, lending activity and/or electronic payments or funds transfers. We are subject to regulation in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Uruguay, that require or would require us to obtain licenses or regulatory authorizations to operate certain services provided by Mercado Pago and that would subject us to additional regulatory requirements. As an authorized or licensed payment services provider, electronic money institution, lender, issuer of credit, debit or prepaid card, acquirer and/or money transmitter in certain jurisdictions where we operate, we are subject to, among other requirements, restrictions with respect to the investment of customer funds, reporting requirements and inspection by regulatory agencies.
Any changes to, or failure to comply with, money services laws or regulations or any tax regulations, or if we engage in an unauthorized banking or financial business, could result in liability, inability to continue doing business with residents of certain countries and changes to our business or regulatory status. Any of these changes could result in making the service less attractive to users, decreasing the speed of trade on the Mercado Libre Marketplace, increasing our financial costs or change our financial model, which would further harm our business and results of operations. Even if we are not required to change our Mercado Pago business, we could be required to obtain licenses or regulatory approvals.
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Anti-Money Laundering
We are subject to anti-money laundering laws and regulations that prohibit, among other things, involvement in receiving and/or transferring the proceeds of criminal activities and impose obligations to identify the users and request certain information and documentation that, in certain circumstances, must be shared with regulators or government institutions. Because laws and regulations differ in each of the jurisdictions where we operate, as we roll out and adapt our business in other countries, additional verification and reporting requirements could apply. These regulations’ requirements, as well as any future regulation and any additional restrictions, could raise our costs significantly and reduce the attractiveness of the Company if failure to comply with anti-money laundering laws results in significant criminal and civil lawsuits, penalties, and forfeiture of significant assets.
Sanctions
As a U.S-incorporated entity, MercadoLibre is subject to U.S. sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”). MercadoLibre’s non-U.S. subsidiaries are required to comply not only with local but also with U.S. sanctions in the same way that MercadoLibre is required to do so. OFAC has the authority to impose civil penalties for violations of U.S. sanctions, and the U.S. Department of Justice is authorized to bring criminal actions against persons that willfully violate U.S. sanctions. Compliance with United Nations sanctions is also mandatory under local law in the jurisdictions where MercadoLibre operates. Failure to comply with any such obligations could result in significant criminal and civil penalties, in addition to reputational and operational consequences.
Shipping
A number of jurisdictions where we operate have enacted legislation regulating shipping services. If we fail to comply with shipping services laws or regulations, or if we engage in an unauthorized shipping business, we could be subject to liability, required to cease doing business with residents of certain countries, or to change our business practices or to become a postal entity. Any change to our Mercado Envios business practices that makes the service less attractive to customers or prohibits its use by residents of a particular jurisdiction could decrease the speed of trade on the Mercado Libre Marketplace, which would further harm our business. Even if we are not required to change our Mercado Envios business practices, we or our service providers could be required to obtain licenses or regulatory approvals, which could be a very expensive and time consuming process, and we cannot assure that we would be able to obtain them in a timely manner or at all.
Sale, Storage and/or Transportation of Goods and Services
Laws specifying the scope of liability of providers of online services for the activities of their users through their online service are currently unsettled in most of the Latin American countries where we operate. This regulatory uncertainty may lead us to engage in administrative and judicial proceedings to dispute claims for fraudulent activities committed by sellers, vendors or third-party carriers and losses incurred by buyers when purchasing items through our platform, which may give rise to high litigation or settlement costs and other liabilities, including reputational harm.
Our policies prohibit the sale, storage and/or transport of certain items (both on our platform and/or in our fulfillment centers and/or through third party carriers providing services to users of Mercado Libre) and we have implemented various actions to monitor and remove unlawful goods and services from our marketplace, which we continually work to improve.
However, we are aware that certain goods, such as alcohol, tobacco, firearms, protected animal species, adult material, medication, drugs and other goods that may be subject to regulation by local or national authorities of various jurisdictions have been traded by users on the Mercado Libre Marketplace in complete infringement to our policies, bypassing our various security efforts and measures, to go undetected. We have at times been—and may continue to be—subject to fines for certain users’ sales of products that have not been approved or infringe laws dictated by the applicable government. We are also aware that certain goods expressly excluded from our shipping services pursuant to our policies were stored in our fulfillment centers and/or delivered through third-party carriers providing services to our users.
We cannot provide any assurances that we will successfully avoid civil or criminal liability for unlawful activities that our users, service providers or third-party carriers carry out when using our services in the future. If we suffer potential liability for any unlawful activities of our users, service providers or third-party carriers, including as a result of damages to individuals or assets, we may need to implement additional measures to reduce our exposure to this liability, which may require, among other things, that we spend substantial resources and/or discontinue certain service offerings. Any costs that we incur as a result of this liability or asserted liability could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
It may be difficult to enforce judgments rendered against us in U.S. courts
Although we are a Delaware corporation, our subsidiaries and most of our assets are located outside of the U.S. Furthermore, most of our directors, officers, and some advisors and experts named in this report reside outside the U.S. As a result, it may not be possible to effect service of process within the U.S. upon these persons. Moreover, uncertainty exists as to whether courts outside of the U.S. would recognize or enforce judgments rendered against us, our subsidiaries, or the above mentioned persons in U.S. courts and predicated on the civil liability provisions of U.S. federal securities laws. In addition, any original or enforcement action in a court outside the U.S. will be subject to compliance with procedural requirements under applicable local law, including the condition that the judgment does not violate the public policy of the applicable jurisdiction.
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Intellectual Property Risks
We could face legal and financial liability upon the sale of items that infringe intellectual property rights of third parties and for information and material disseminated through our platforms
We have received in the past, and anticipate that we will receive in the future, complaints alleging that certain items listed or sold through the Mercado Libre Marketplace or Mercado Shops or using Mercado Pago, or delivered by Mercado Envios infringe third-party copyrights, trademarks and/or other IP rights. Content owners and other IP owners have been active in asserting their rights against online companies, including us. Our user policy prohibits any content or sale of goods that may infringe third-party IP rights and we may, proactively, or at the request of any IP owner who enrolls in our notice and takedown mechanism, the brand protection program, remove listings based on violations of our policies, as well as sanction any user who infringes third-party IP rights.
Despite these measures and our efforts to combat IP infringement, we are not able to prevent all misappropriation, violation or infringement of IP rights—and some IP owners may consider our efforts insufficient. Mercado Libre was included on the United States Trade Representative’s Notorious Markets List for 2020 and also on the European Commission’s 2020 Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List. Although we were removed from both watchlists in 2022, and we have not been included since then, it is possible that we may continue to be nominated or included in these and/or any other similar watchlists. We have also received, and anticipate that we may continue to receive, legal claims from content and IP owners alleging violations of their IP rights and also from users affected by listing takedowns and account restrictions, which could result in substantial monetary damages awards, or us, as well as affect our reputation. It is also possible that new laws and regulations may be adopted with respect to intermediary liability or mandatory out-of-court procedures to any related to intermediary liability that could have a material effect on our operations.
It is also possible that third parties could bring claims against us for defamation, libel, invasion of privacy, negligence, or other theories based on the nature and content of the materials disseminated through our platforms, particularly by our users. If we are held liable or potentially liable for information carried on or disseminated through our platforms, we may have to pay monetary damages, be subject to enforcement actions, injunctions, fines or penalties, and it may have an adverse impact on our business model, including our level of exposure to liability. Any measures we may need to implement to reduce that exposure may involve spending substantial resources and/or discontinuing certain services, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, public attention to liability issues, lawsuits and legislative proposals could have an impact on our business model and reputation, and—consequently—on our business results.
We may not be able to adequately protect and enforce our intellectual property rights. We could potentially face claims alleging that our technologies infringe the property rights of others
Our IP rights are pivotal to our continued growth and success. These rights are safeguarded through a combination of copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret laws, and contractual measures. With the rapid expansion of our business in recent years, we have witnessed a concurrent rise in infringement on our IP rights, notably on social media platforms. This includes issues such as unauthorized domain name registrations, deceptive apps and counterfeit or fraudulent websites. While we have undertaken measures to defend our IP rights, there is no guarantee that these actions, or any future efforts, will effectively deter misappropriation, safeguard against the dilution of our trademarks, or prevent third parties from creating similar or competing technologies.
Our trademark portfolio is owned by MercadoLibre, Inc. and its subsidiaries. There are no material intellectual property assets jointly owned with any third party. The most valuable intellectual property owned by us is the “Mercado” trademark family portfolio, namely, Mercado Libre and Mercado Pago, among others, and related domain names ("TLDs" and "ccTLDs"), as well as our proprietary software.
We pursue the registration of our IP and other intangible assets in each country where we operate. However, we may not have sufficient protection or such protection might not be granted to us by the appropriate regulatory authority in every country where our services are available online. Thus, our ability to protect our brands and our products and services against third-party infringers may be compromised and we could face claims by third-party IP owners. Any claims relating to these issues, whether meritorious or not, could cause us to enter into costly litigation or settlements, potentially including royalty arrangements, awards of monetary damages or orders limiting our ability to sell our products and services. We may also be required to enter into licensing agreements, which may be on terms that are unfavorable to us and some of the licenses may be not be available to us at all. If any of these claims against us are successful, we may also have to modify some of our brand identifiers and/or domain names in certain countries or stop offering certain features, functionalities, products or services in certain jurisdictions. Any of these circumstances could the attention of management and affect our business, results of operations and financial situation.
We have licensed in the past, and expect that we may license in the future, certain of our proprietary rights, such as trademarks or copyrighted material, to third parties. Though our license agreements contain customary restrictions on our licensees, and we exercise oversight over our licensees’ use of our IP, our licensees may take actions that could affect the value of our proprietary rights or reputation, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Further, many of our agreements with our customers and partners, the terms of which often survive termination or expiration of the applicable agreement, require us to defend such parties against certain intellectual property infringement claims and indemnify them for damages and losses arising from certain intellectual property infringement claims against them, which have in the past resulted, and could in the future result, in increased costs for such or significant if there is an ruling in any such . These defense costs and indemnity payments could materially and affect our results of operations, financial condition, business and prospects. Such customers and partners may also the use of our products and services as a result of or otherwise, which could result in of revenue and affect our business.
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Some of our know-how or technology is not patented or patentable and may constitute trade secrets. To protect our trade secrets, we have a policy of requiring our employees, consultants, advisors and other collaborators who contribute to our material intellectual property to enter into confidentiality agreements. We also rely on customary contractual protections with our suppliers and customers, and we implement security measures intended to protect our trade secrets, know-how and other proprietary information. However, no assurances can be given that those contracts will not be breached. Further, those contracts and arrangements may be ineffective in protecting our trade secrets or confidential information and may not prevent unauthorized disclosure.
The integration of AI tools into our products and services presents significant IP challenges. Determining IP ownership for AI-generated content remains ambiguous in some jurisdictions, which may potentially lead to infringement claims by third parties. AI tools might also unintentionally access or use third party IP or generate outputs which may contain or be substantially similar to third-party material protected by intellectual property rights, including patents, copyrights or trademarks, heightening our exposure to IP disputes. Using third-party AI tools raises concerns about the origin of content, which may lead to IP infringements that could inadvertently implicate us. Inventions or works of authorship created through the use of AI/ML may be based or rely on, or contain, materials that were used in the training of such AI/ML technologies and which are identical or similar to third-party intellectual property, which could further limit our ability to obtain intellectual property protection in such or works of authorship. Moreover, there is a risk that an employee may input confidential information, including material non-public information, trade secrets or personal identifiable information, into AI/ML applications, resulting in such information becoming accessible by third parties, including our competitors. As AI tools continue to evolve, ensuring protection IP and avoiding risks related to leaks of confidential information becomes progressively more . Such could also affect our consumers’ and the public’s perception of our Company.
Our Company extensively utilizes open source software (“OSS”), presenting significant intellectual property challenges. We have established the OSPO (Open Source Program Office) to oversee OSS compliance, contribute to open source project development, and implement company-wide OSS usage policies. Despite the implementation of OSPO, we cannot guarantee that all of our employees accurately use and integrate OSS tools. As a result, given the high level of OSS consumption in our Company, we cannot guarantee that our use of OSS software will not inadvertently infringe upon third-party intellectual property rights or fully comply with pertinent OSS licenses. In addition, we cannot guarantee that our employees will not disclose any Company software to the open source software community. From time to time, companies that use OSS have faced claims challenging the use of OSS and/or demanding compliance with open source license terms. We could be subject to suits by parties claiming non-compliance with open source licensing terms. Moreover, these licenses may subject us to certain unfavorable conditions, including requirements that we offer our products that incorporate, are based on or that link to OSS for no cost, that we make publicly available the source code for any of our proprietary software that we create based upon, or that incorporates, links to or otherwise uses the OSS, or that we license such software under the terms of the particular open source license.
Additionally, the AI/ML technologies in our product offerings and operations may be trained on data sets that include open source software or may draw from sources that might subject our AI/ML technologies to certain license restrictions or other obligations. While we monitor and control the use of open source software in our products and services, and we try to ensure that no open source software is used in such a way to require us to subject our proprietary software to open source licensing terms (including to disclose the source code to third parties), there can be no guarantee that such use could not inadvertently occur. Further, use of open source AI/ML technologies poses additional risks relating to the underlying training data sets, including an increased risk in intellectual property infringement or non-compliance with open source license terms as a result of such training data sets potentially derived from data sourced without permission or outside the scope of the underlying open source license, as well as challenges in asserting copyright ownership on new code (resulting output) generated from AI/ML technologies. Use of open source software may also give rise to security risks, including due to lack of proper maintenance and support for such open source software. Any of the foregoing could our intellectual property rights and materially and affect our operations, financial condition, business and prospects.
As our Company’s business grows and our reliance on OSS and AI tools increases, the potential risk of facing IP claims becomes more pronounced. Addressing these infringement claims can be costly, time-consuming, and could significantly impact our business, operational results, financial health and reputation.
Cybersecurity and Technology Risks
Any delay or problem with operating or upgrading our existing information technology infrastructure could cause a disruption in our business and adversely impact our financial results
Our ability to operate our business on a day-to-day basis largely depends on the efficient operation of our information technology infrastructure and our cloud providers, the largest of which are Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform. We have been and continue to be susceptible to hacks into our systems or other security breaches by unauthorized third parties. We are also susceptible to errors in connection with any systems upgrade or migration to a different hardware or software system, errors or incidents of our cloud providers, bugs or other problems for any of the software we use, either developed in-house or provided by third parties. Security breaches, regulatory requirements, national security prohibitions or other developments that might prevent these third parties from providing services to us or our users could harm our business.
Our systems and our information technology infrastructure are vulnerable to damage or interruption from natural or man-made disasters, power loss, computer viruses, telecommunication and other operational failures, ransomware attacks or any other kind of denial of service related attacks, physical or electronic break-ins, sabotage, intentional acts of vandalism, terrorism, public health crises (including pandemics), extreme weather (including as a result of climate change) and similar events. The public cloud providers we use could also decide to close their facilities or be required to suspend the provision of services.
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Any steps that we may take to upgrade and improve the stability and efficiency of our information technology may not be sufficient to avoid defects or disruptions in our technology infrastructure, which could cause a disruption in our business and adversely impact our financial results. Our systems are not fully redundant and our disaster recovery planning may not be sufficient. We do not have insurance coverage to compensate for any related losses. Any errors, defects, disruptions, interruptions, delays or cessation of service could result in significant disruptions to our business that could ultimately be more expensive, time consuming and resource-intensive than anticipated. We have experienced and will likely continue to experience or in our technology infrastructure, including system and that make our site and services or to respond for periods of time, which could impact our ability to process transactions on our sites, apps or fulfill shipments, which could reduce our revenue, applicable regulations, affect our reputation with or result in the of users and impact our financial results.
We are subject to security breaches, disruption and confidential data theft from our systems, which can adversely affect our reputation and business
A significant risk to our business lies both in the secure transmission of confidential information over public networks and in the continuity of our operations, given our heavy reliance on technology. We rely on encryption, authentication, data protection, infrastructure and application security hardening, monitoring and response measures to safeguard our systems and securely transmit confidential information. However, advances in computing capabilities, new discoveries in cryptography or other unforeseen events may compromise the technology we use to protect customer transaction data. There is no assurance that the security measures we have put in place will be effective in every case, and our response process to incidents may not be adequate, may fail to accurately assess the severity of an incident, may not be fast enough to prevent, detect and report or limit harm or may fail to sufficiently remediate an incident. Failures and in security could result in a impact for us and for our customers, affecting our and our customers’ businesses, assets, revenues, brands and reputations, our operations and resulting in , , , regulatory proceedings, regulatory , remediation efforts, indemnification expenditures, increased insurance premiums, reputational , publicity, revenues and/or other potential liabilities, in each case depending on the nature of the information .
The techniques employed to gain unauthorized, improper or illegal access to our systems, data, or customers' data—such as disabling or degrading services or sabotaging systems—are constantly evolving. These techniques have become increasingly complex and sophisticated, can be challenging to detect quickly and are often not recognized until actively deployed against a target. Also, the development and proliferation of AI/ML in addition to other related technologies, may increase our exposure to cyber-attacks and other cybersecurity risks by providing third parties with enhanced capabilities to breach our systems, and may require us to spend additional resources to further strengthen our defenses against such threat. While we may not initially assess some of these issues as material and may address them promptly, there is no guarantee that such will not result in significant legal, financial or reputational , including government inquiries, enforcement actions, and publicity.
Unauthorized parties have, and may continue to, attempt to gain access to our systems or facilities through various means, including hacking into our systems or those of our customers, partners or vendors. They may also attempt to fraudulently induce our employees, customers, partners, vendors or other system users to disclose usernames, passwords, payment card information or other sensitive data. Such information could then be used to access our information technology systems or those of our third-party partners. Our users have been, and will likely continue to be, targeted by fraudulent “spoof” and “phishing” emails that appear to originate from Mercado Libre, Mercado Pago or another user of our services. These emails direct recipients to fake websites operated by malicious actors or falsely claim that a payment was credited by Mercado Pago, requesting that the recipient send a product or confidential information, such as passwords.
Our information technology systems and infrastructure, including our source code, as well as those of third parties with whom we collaborate, have been—and may continue to be—vulnerable to cyberattacks and security breaches. Unauthorized parties may gain access to customers' personal or proprietary information, including credit and debit card data stored on or accessible through these systems. This access could also disrupt our business operations, including financial, e-commerce and logistics services.
Furthermore, our security measures may be compromised due to human error, misconduct, system malfunctions, vulnerabilities or other irregularities. Efforts to address undesirable activities on our platform may also increase the risk of retaliatory attacks.
Additionally, remediation efforts may not be successful and could result in interruptions, delays or cessation of service, unfavorable publicity, damage to our reputation, customer allegations of breach-of-contract, possible litigation, and loss of existing or potential customers that may impede our sales or other critical functions.
While we maintain certain insurance policies, we do not carry insurance that reimburses us for losses caused by security breaches. Some of our systems have experienced past security breaches that did not have a material adverse effect on our operating results or reputation. However, there is no assurance that future breaches will have a similar outcome. We cannot guarantee that our security measures will prevent breaches or that the failure to prevent such incidents will not materially affect our business, operations, financial condition or reputation. Moreover, any network or data security breaches involving companies we acquire, our customers, partners or vendors—including service providers—could result in similar negative consequences.
We may not be able to secure licenses for technologies on which we rely
We rely on certain technologies that we license from third parties that supply key database technology, operating systems and specific hardware components for our services. We cannot assure you that these technology licenses will continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. If we were not able to make use of this technology, we would need to obtain substitute technology that may be of lower quality or performance standards or be obtained at greater cost, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Although we generally have been able to renew or extend the terms of contractual arrangements with these service providers on acceptable terms, we cannot assure you that we will continue to be able to do so in the future.
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Risks related to doing business in Latin America
We face the risk of political and economic crises, instability, terrorism, civil strife, labor conflicts, expropriation, corruption and other risks of doing business in emerging markets
We conduct our operations in emerging market countries in Latin America, which have historically experienced uneven periods of economic growth, as well as recession, periods of high inflation and economic instability. There has been increased violence, crime, social and political turmoil and unrest in some of these countries, which could result in disruptions to our operations or present risks to our employees. These developments, as well as other economic and political developments in these countries, including future economic changes or crises (such as inflation, currency devaluation or recession), government deadlock, social and political turmoil and unrest, changes in laws and regulations, labor conflicts, expropriation or nationalization of property, and exchange controls could impact our operations or the market value of our common stock and have a material effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We also have operations and deal with government entities and financial institutions in countries in Latin America known to experience corruption. Our activities in these countries create the risk of unauthorized payments or offers of payments by our employees, contractors or agents that could be in violation of various laws including the FCPA, even though these parties are not always subject to our control. Our existing safeguards and any future improvements may prove to be less than effective, and our employees, contractors or agents may engage in conduct for which we may be held responsible. Violations of the FCPA may result in severe criminal or civil sanctions, and we may be subject to other liabilities, which could negatively affect our reputation and business. Further, to the extent corruption, bribery and similar practices continue to exist in the region, international investor perception of the region could be affected, which could in turn affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our employees in Brazil and some of our employees in Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Uruguay are currently represented by a labor union, and employees in other Latin American countries may eventually become unionized. We may incur increased payroll costs or reduced flexibility under labor regulations if unionization in other countries were to occur, any of which may negatively impact our business. In addition, we could be affected by conflicts between unions which claim representation of our employees that could generate additional payroll costs and labor conflicts.
Although economic and political conditions may differ from one country to another, we cannot assure you that events in one country alone will not adversely affect our business, financial condition or the market value of our common stock.
Latin American governments have exercised and continue to exercise significant influence over the economies of the countries where we operate. This involvement, as well as political and economic conditions, could adversely affect our business
Governments in Latin America frequently intervene in the economies of their respective countries and occasionally make significant changes in policy and regulations. Governmental actions to control inflation and other policies and regulations have often involved, among other measures, price controls, currency devaluations, export duties, capital controls and limits on imports. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected by changes in government policies or regulations, including such factors as: exchange rates and exchange control policies; inflation rates; interest rates; tariff and inflation control policies; price control policies; import duties and restrictions; liquidity of domestic capital and lending markets; electricity rationing; tax policies, including royalty, tax increases and retroactive tax claims; and other political, diplomatic, social and economic developments in or affecting the countries where we operate.
Reduced foreign investment in any of the countries where we operate may have a negative impact on such country’s economy, affecting interest rates and the ability of companies such as ours to access financial markets.
Local currencies used in the conduct of our business are subject to depreciation, volatility and exchange controls
Most Latin American countries have historically experienced, and may continue to experience in the future, high rates of inflation, which could lead to further government intervention in the economy, including the introduction of government policies that could adversely affect our results of operations. Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, which together accounted for 95.6% and 95.7% of our net revenues and financial income for 2025 and 2024, respectively, have experienced volatility and significant devaluations in the past. For the year ended December 31, 2025, the inflation rate in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico was 4.3%, 31.5% and 3.7%, respectively. Since July 1, 2018, we have classified our Argentine operations as highly inflationary in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and use the U.S. dollar as the functional currency of our Argentine subsidiaries for purposes of reporting our financial statements. Argentina’s annual inflation rate for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023 was 31.5%, 117.8% and 211.4%, respectively, and Argentina’s official exchange rate against the U.S. dollar increased 41.0%, 27.7% and 356.3%, respectively.
The depreciation of local currencies creates inflationary pressures that may have an adverse effect on our results of operations, including affecting our ability to adjust the price of our services sufficiently to offset the effects of inflation on our cost structures and generally restricting access to the international capital markets. A high inflationary environment could also have negative effects on the level of economic activity, employment and may adversely affect our business and results of operations. On the other hand, the appreciation of local currencies against the U.S. dollar may lead to the deterioration of public accounts and the balance of payments of the countries where we operate, and may reduce export growth in those countries.
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Because we conduct our business outside the U.S. and receive almost all of our revenues and financial income in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, but report our results in U.S. dollars, we face exposure to adverse movements in currency exchange rates. The results of operations in the countries where we operate are exposed to foreign exchange rate fluctuations as our financial results are translated from the applicable local currency into U.S. dollars upon consolidation. If the U.S. dollar weakens against foreign currencies, as has occurred in some years, the translation of these foreign-currency-denominated transactions will result in increased net revenues and financial income, operating expenses, and net income. Similarly, our net revenues and financial income, operating expenses, and net income will decrease if the U.S. dollar strengthens against the foreign currencies of countries in which we operate. For the year ended December 31, 2025, 52.6% of our net revenues and financial income was denominated in Brazilian Real, 22.4% in Mexican Pesos and 20.6% in Argentine Pesos. Certain of our subsidiaries may be subject to exchange control regulations that might restrict their ability to convert local currencies into U.S. dollars. Brazilian law provides that whenever there is a in Brazil’s balance of payments or reason to foresee a , the Brazilian government may impose temporary restrictions on the remittance to foreign investors of the proceeds of their investments in Brazil.
In recent years, extensive exchange controls implemented by the Argentine government have controlled and restricted the ability of companies and individuals to exchange Argentine Pesos for foreign currencies and their ability to remit foreign currency out of Argentina. An entity’s authorization request to the CBA to access the official exchange market to make foreign currency payments may be denied depending on the circumstances. As a result of these exchange controls, markets in Argentina have developed trading mechanisms to access U.S. dollars locally or outside Argentina.
Regulations issued by the current Argentine government have partially decreased exchange controls; however, there can be no assurance that the CBA or other government agencies will not subsequently increase controls or restrictions, make modifications to these regulations or establish more severe restrictions on currency exchange, which could affect the ability to make payments to foreign creditors or providers and dividend payments to foreign shareholders. These exchange controls and restrictions have in the past materially adversely affect the business, financial condition and results of operations of our Argentine subsidiaries and their ability to comply with their foreign currency obligations, and could significantly impact our ability to receive cash from our Argentine subsidiaries and our ability to meet our obligations, each of which could have a material adverse effect on our Company.
Our transactions in Latin America may be impacted by the weaknesses of secure payment methods
Consumers and merchants in Latin America can be held fully liable for credit card and other losses due to third-party fraud. As secure methods of payment for digital transactions have not been widely adopted in Latin America, both consumers and merchants generally have a relatively low confidence level in the integrity of these transactions. Unless consumer fraud laws in Latin American countries are modified to protect merchants and consumers, and until secure, integrated online payment processing methods are fully implemented across the region, our ability to generate revenues may be limited, which could have a material adverse effect on our Company. In addition, while banks and other financial institutions in Latin America have generally granted merchants the right to process online transactions, adjustments to the fraud and risk management processes of these banks and financial institutions, including due to concerns about credit card fraud, may negatively impact our payments approval rates.
Risks related to our shares
Provisions of our certificate of incorporation and Delaware law could inhibit others from acquiring us, prevent a change of control, and may prevent efforts by our stockholders to change our management
Certain provisions of our certificate of incorporation and by-laws may inhibit a change of control that our board of directors does not approve or changes in the composition of our board of directors, which could result in the entrenchment of current management and may delay, defer or prevent a transaction or a change in control that might otherwise be in the best interests of our stockholders.
These provisions include: i) advance notice requirements for stockholder proposals and director nominations; ii) a staggered board of directors; iii) limitations on the ability of stockholders to remove directors other than for cause; iv) limitations on the ability of stockholders to own and/or exercise voting power over 20% of our common stock; v) limitations on the ability of stockholders to amend, alter or repeal our by-laws; vi) the inability of stockholders to act by written consent; vii) the authority of the board of directors to adopt a stockholder rights plan; viii) the authority of the board of directors to issue, without stockholder approval, preferred stock with any terms that the board of directors determines and additional shares of our common stock; and ix) limitations on the ability of certain stockholders to enter into certain business combinations with us, as provided under Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law.
