Opinion ID: 495208
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The INPO Reports are Commercial.

Text: 8 We agree with the district court's conclusion that, contrary to CMEP's contention, the reports contain commercial information: INPO's constituent utility companies are assuredly commercial enterprises engaged in the production and sale of electrical power for profit [and] [t]he revelation of the details of the operations of their nuclear power plants ... could materially affect their profitability in multiple ways. 16 INPO itself is a not-for-profit enterprise, but INPO's non-profit status is not determinative of the character of the information it reports; information may qualify as commercial even if the provider's (i.e., INPO's) interest in gathering, processing, and reporting the information is noncommercial. See Board of Trade, 627 F.2d at 405-06 (the plain language of exemption 4 does not in any way suggest that this information must relate to the affairs of the provider; the exemption is sufficiently broad to encompass financial and commercial information concerning a third party). 9 In Public Citizen Health Research Group v. FDA, 704 F.2d 1280 (D.C.Cir.1983), we held that manufacturers of intraocular lenses had a commercial interest in health and safety data submitted to the FDA because the data would be instrumental in gaining marketing approval for their products. Id. at 1290. Comparably, the commercial fortunes of INPO's member utilities, and the vendors whose products are appraised in the INPO reports, could be materially affected by the disclosure of health and safety problems experienced during the operation of nuclear power facilities. 10