Goto Section: 1.730 | 1.732 | Table of Contents
FCC 1.731
Revised as of October 5, 2017
Goto Year:2016 |
2018
§ 1.731 Confidentiality of information produced or exchanged.
(a) Any materials generated in the course of a formal complaint
proceeding 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 contains 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) and 1.735(f)(1) through
(3);
(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 prosecuting or defending a party to the complaint
action, 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
individuals' 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 identified above in paragraph (b)(1) through (3)
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)(1) through (3) 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 the formal 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.
[ 79 FR 73845 , Dec. 12, 2014]
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Goto Section: 1.730 | 1.732
Goto Year: 2016 |
2018
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