Goto Section: 8.15 | 8.17 | Table of Contents
FCC 8.16
Revised as of October 2, 2015
Goto Year:2014 |
2016
§ 8.16 Confidentiality of proprietary information.
(a) Any materials generated in the course of a proceeding under this part
may be designated as proprietary by either party to the proceeding or a
third party if the party believes in good faith that the materials fall
within an exemption to disclosure contained in the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(b) (1) through (9). Any party asserting
confidentiality for such materials must:
(1) Clearly mark each page, or portion thereof, for which a proprietary
designation is claimed. If a proprietary designation is challenged, the
party claiming confidentiality shall have the burden of demonstrating, by a
preponderance of the evidence, that the materials designated as proprietary
fall under the standards for nondisclosure enunciated in the FOIA.
(2) File with the Commission, using the Commission's Electronic Comment
Filing System, a public version of the materials that redacts any
proprietary information and clearly marks each page of the redacted public
version with a header stating “Public Version.” The redacted document shall
be machine-readable whenever technically possible. Where the document to be
filed electronically contains metadata that is confidential or protected
from disclosure by a legal privilege (including, for example, the
attorney-client privilege), the filer may remove such metadata from the
document before filing it electronically.
(3) File with the Secretary's Office an unredacted hard copy version of the
materials that contain the proprietary information and clearly marks each
page of the unredacted confidential version with a header stating
“Confidential Version.” The unredacted version must be filed on the same day
as the redacted version.
(4) Serve one hard copy of the filed unredacted materials and one hard copy
of the filed redacted materials on the attorney of record for each party to
the proceeding, or where a party is not represented by an attorney, each
party to the proceeding either by hand delivery, overnight delivery, or
email, together with a proof of such service in accordance with the
requirements of § 1.47(g) of this chapter and § 8.13(c)(1)(a) through (c).
(b) Except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section, materials marked as
proprietary may be disclosed solely to the following persons, only for use
in the proceeding, and only to the extent necessary to assist in the
prosecution or defense of the case:
(1) Counsel of record representing the parties in the complaint action and
any support personnel employed by such attorneys;
(2) Officers or employees of the opposing party who are named by the
opposing party as being directly involved in the prosecution or defense of
the case;
(3) Consultants or expert witnesses retained by the parties;
(4) The Commission and its staff; and
(5) Court reporters and stenographers in accordance with the terms and
conditions of this section.
(c) The Commission will entertain, subject to a proper showing under § 0.459
of this chapter, a party's request to further restrict access to proprietary
information. Pursuant to § 0.459 of this chapter, the other parties will have
an opportunity to respond to such requests. Requests and responses to
requests may not be submitted by means of the Commission's Electronic
Comment Filing System but instead must be filed under seal with the Office
of the Secretary.
(d) The individuals designated in paragraphs (b)(1) through (3) of this
section shall not disclose information designated as proprietary to any
person who is not authorized under this section to receive such information,
and shall not use the information in any activity or function other than the
prosecution or defense in the case before the Commission. Each individual
who is provided access to the information shall sign a notarized statement
affirmatively stating that the individual has personally reviewed the
Commission's rules and understands the limitations they impose on the
signing party.
(e) No copies of materials marked proprietary may be made except copies to
be used by persons designated in paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section.
Each party shall maintain a log recording the number of copies made of all
proprietary material and the persons to whom the copies have been provided.
(f) Upon termination of a complaint proceeding, including all appeals and
petitions, all originals and reproductions of any proprietary materials,
along with the log recording persons who received copies of such materials,
shall be provided to the producing party. In addition, upon final
termination of the proceeding, any notes or other work product derived in
whole or in part from the proprietary materials of an opposing or third
party shall be destroyed.
[ 80 FR 19848 , Apr. 13, 2015]
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Goto Section: 8.15 | 8.17
Goto Year: 2014 |
2016
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