Buyer And Seller Beware – Dealing With Databases In Transactions

With data increasingly being seen as a valuable trading commodity, the sale and purchase of customer information is now big business and transactions relating to or involving databases that contain customer information are on the rise.

Databases can be acquired in many ways, including by:

• the acquisition of a business that has collated a database; or
• the direct sale and purchase of the database as a single asset.

When undertaking any transaction involving the transfer of a database containing personal information, parties need to ensure they have proper regard to the prospective application of the Privacy Act in undertaking due diligence and completing the transactions, including in preparing transaction documentation.