Is Your Trade Secret Safe Under FOIA?

In June 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Food Marketing Institute. v. Argus Leader Media. The case marked the Court's first chance to address an important question: When can (or cannot) the federal government withhold information from a Freedom of Information Act request based on the contention that responsive information is confidential or a trade secret? The Court held that commercial or financial information that is "customarily and actually treated as private by its owner and provided to the government under an assurance of privacy" is confidential under Exemption 4 to FOIA and is therefore shielded from disclosure.

Argus Leader Media, a newspaper company, filed a FOIA request for data collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture requesting the name, address and store-level data for all retail stores that participate in the national food stamp program. The USDA released the names and addresses of the participating stores but declined to disclose the