Opinion ID: 185361
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Customary Disclosure

Text: 26 If this were an ordinary FOIA case involving the invocation of Exemption 4 with respect to information that had been voluntarily submitted to the Government, we would consider whether the information at issue has been customarily disclosed. Here, however, we are confronted with information that was submitted under false pretenses. That is, the Government claimed that it had the authority to compel the submission of the information when in fact no such authority existed. As noted above, applications of Exemption 4 attempt to balance private interests in protection from disclosure, governmental interests in access to data, and public interest in transparent governmental decision-making. In this case, the agency essentially flashed its badge to gain entrance to a private sphere when it had no legal authority to do so, and this misrepresentation must tip the balance of interests in favor of the private parties. Given this unusual situation-i.e., submissions made under false pretenses--we cannot treat the submissions as mandatory. As a result, we apply the same standard we use in evaluating voluntary submissions. Thus, treating the information as having been submitted voluntarily, we turn to the question of whether the information is customarily disclosed. 27 As a preliminary matter, we note that the District Court found that 10 information items involved protected trade secrets. We have defined a trade secret as a secret, commercially valuable plan, formula, process, or device that is used for the making, preparing, compounding, or processing of trade commodities and that can be said to be the end product of either innovation or substantial effort. Pub. Citizen Health Research Group v. FDA, 704 F.2d 1280, 1288 (D.C. Cir. 1983). On appeal, the Center argues that the information at issue addressed the physical and performance characteristics of airbags, not how airbags are manufactured, and, therefore, the information cannot qualify as trade secrets. Intervenor-defendants defend the trade secrets ruling. NHTSA does not defend the trade secrets ruling and instead urges the court to find that the submissions were voluntary and involved commercial information not customarily disclosed to the public. We agree with the Center that the information at issue does not qualify as trade secrets, but also agree with NHTSA that the information may nonetheless qualify for protection under Critical Mass. Our Decision in Public Citizen narrowly cabins trade secrets to information relating to the productive process itself, see id. at 1288; yet these 10 categories of information relate only to the end product--what features an airbag has and how it performs-rather than to the production process, how an airbag is made. To be sure, the manufacturers persuasively argue that the information is valuable to competitors and not readily obtained. That, however, goes to whether the information is customarily disclosed. Therefore, the question to be decided here is whether the information is independently protected under Critical Mass. We therefore turn to that issue. 28 The Center asserts that with respect to 18 of the 33 disputed items of information, at least one of the companies has customarily disclosed the same type of information in the past. The Center also claims that, because the information at issue relates to products that are sold on the public market, most of the information can be ascertained by examining an airbag, performing a routine test, or watching a publicly accessible videotape. 29 We reject the Center's argument that the mere selling of a product on the open market can constitute evidence of customary disclosure. The District Court correctly determined that the fact that intervenor-defendants sold cars with airbags to the public does not constitute evidence of customary disclosure. The District Court explained that dismantling airbags is dangerous, time-consuming and expensive, and the information at issue in this case cannot be discovered simply by looking inside a car or taking apart a steering column or dashboard. Mem. Op. at 32. We agree--indeed, to find otherwise would so dilute the meaning of customary disclosure, as to render the requirement meaningless. The Information Requests specified that respondents must submit information for each vehicle, make, and model manufactured or imported into the United States between 1990 and 1998. Information Request, reprinted in J.A. 328. The fact that airbags can be bought on the open market and inspected certainly does not establish that information describing the physical characteristics of every vehicle produced over many years is customarily disclosed. 30 Although we agree that the mere sale of a product to the public does not constitute customary disclosure, there is one aspect of the District Court's opinion that is flawed. In Niagara Mohawk, this court held that information must be disclosed if identical information is in the public domain. [I]f identical information is truly public, then enforcement of an exemption cannot fulfill its purposes. Niagara Mohawk, 169 F.3d at 19. The identical information basis for disclosure is, however, entirely distinct from the customary disclosure standard. Under the former test, the party favoring disclosure has the burden of demonstrating that the information sought is identical to information already publicly available; under the latter test, the burden is on the party opposing disclosure to prove that the information is of a kind that would customarily not be released to the public. Critical Mass, 975 F.3d at 879. In this case, the District Court appeared to hold that the Center could obtain release of the information only if information of that kind is customarily disclosed and the identical information has been disclosed. Mem. Op. at 39. This is not a correct statement of the law. 31 Despite this legal error, the District Court correctly rejected much of the Center's purported evidence of customary disclosure. The Center contends that customary disclosure is shown by the fact that many of the submissions to NHTSA had nothing more than detail to distinguish them from materials previously disclosed by the respondents. In other words, the Center argues that a difference in level of detail is inadequate to establish a difference in type of information. This argument is unpersuasive. In truth, substantial differences in level of detail can produce a difference in type of information. Thus, for example, a one time disclosure of information regarding a single model in a particular year will not likely create a genuine issue of material fact regarding the customary disclosure of multi-year, multi-model information. 32 The fallacy of the Center's claim is manifest even in the evidence that the Center itself highlights. The Center cites a declaration by Tamio Arakawa as evidence that Toyota customarily disclosed information which Center now seeks. Arakawa explained, 33 The information contained in [Center for Auto Safety's exhibit] is general information for a generic 1993-94 Toyota vehicle. Unlike the information contained in Toyota's response to NHTSA's information request, [Center for Auto Safety's exhibit] does not contain specific data for particular Toyota vehicles or for model years 1990-98. For example, the information described in [plaintiff's exhibit] regarding sensor and deployment thresholds is limited to head-on collisions. Deployment thresholds are not determined by only head-on collision data. The information that Toyota is seeking to protect from disclosure in this litigation include threshold values for various types of collisions for every 1990-98 Toyota Vehicle. 34 Arakawa Supp. 8, reprinted in J.A. 574-75. Contrary to the Center's assumptions, it was eminently reasonable for the District Court to conclude that the differences described by Arakawa show that the difference between the disclosed information and the submitted information is a difference in type. The Center pointed to information Toyota disclosed regarding a generic 1993-94 Toyota vehicle; the information at issue covers data for every 1990-98 Toyota vehicle. The former is not evidence of customary disclosure of the latter. 35 In sum, most of the District Court's findings on customary disclosure are supported by the record and consistent with applicable law. However, as a result of the District Court's misapplication of the Niagara Mohawk legal standard, some questions still remain regarding whether the intervenordefendants customarily disclosed certain information at issue. For example, the Center submitted evidence that GM publicly disclosed a chart listing, by vehicle model for MY 19931996, the driver and passenger airbag material and weave. Appendix A, reprinted in J.A. 337. At oral argument, counsel for intervenor-defendants was unable to explain why this multi-year, multi-model information should not constitute evidence of customary disclosure. Following argument counsel submitted a letter to the court pointing to the supplemental declaration of C. Thomas Terry in response. Terry's supplemental declaration asserted that GM's release of information did not reflect a policy of customary disclosure of the type of information GM provided in response to the Information Request. According to Terry, the comments were an isolated release of information and differed in specificity, measurement criteria, and other material respects. Supplemental Declaration of C. Thomas Terry, reprinted in J.A. 505, p 4, 507, p 14. Aside from these general claims, Terry presented nothing concrete to support this position. Furthermore, Terry noted that [a]ny information in the comments that was identical to specific responses to the Information Requests has been disclosed. Id. at 505, p 4. As we have explained, however, the information need not have been identical to constitute customary disclosure. 36 Applying the appropriate legal standard on remand, the District Court must determine whether Terry's declaration, and any other relevant responses by intervenor-defendants, are adequate to defeat any claim of customary disclosure. The same inquiry must be made with respect to the 10 information items the District Court held were trade secrets and any other information item that is questionable due to the District Court's error in applying Niagara Mohawk. On remand, the District Court need not retry the entire case, for, as we have noted, most of the findings at issue easily survive challenge. It will be up to the Center to identify any other disputed material, like the aforecited material discussed in the Terry Declaration, that may have been analyzed pursuant to an incorrect legal standard by virtue of the District Court's flawed application of Niagara Mohawk.