Verizon New York, Inc. v. New York State Public Service Commission

Case Updates

The New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division issued an opinion holding that petitioner, Verizon, established that the documents at issue on appeal contain bona fide trade secrets and are therefore exempt from disclosure under FOIL. The opinion also held that the FOIL has separate exemptions for documents containing trade secrets and for documents containing confidential commercial information that if released would cause competitive harm.

The U.S. Chamber, along with the Business Council of New York, filed an amicus brief in a New York appellate court in a case involving a request under New York’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) for information that is indisputably a trade secret. The question posed to the appellate court is whether a business, in protecting its trade secrets from disclosure, must also separately demonstrate that disclosure would result in competitive injury.

In the joint brief, the Chamber argues that the FOIL is most plausibly and sensibly read to exempt trade secrets from disclosure by the agency, here the Public Service Commission, without the need for any such further showing. The brief also contends that a contrary interpretation, as urged by appellants, would be bad for business, agencies, and the public.

Vincent Levy, Daniel M. Sullivan, and Jayme Jonat of Holwell, Shuster & Goldberg LLP served as co-counsel for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Council of New York in this case.