Confidentiality Agreements Applied To Non-Party Recipients

In Dale v. T-Mobile US, Inc. – a putative antitrust class action litigation – Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cole resolved whether and to what extent confidentiality agreements between parties apply to productions non-party recipients of subpoenas made.

Background

In this litigation, the parties entered a confidentiality order governing discovery in the case. After the parties issued subpoenas to numerous non-parties, a dispute with the non-parties arose regarding certain portions of the confidentiality order. Although the parties and the non-party subpoena recipients "nearly reached agreement [during meet and confers] for amending the Confidentiality Order," they could not agree on certain topics, including whether defendant's in-house counsel would be permitted to review highly confidential information from the non-parties. A motion to amend the confidentiality order was brought to the court.