FOI Guide No. 4    Issued: October 2001                                                                                                                                                                     Commercial or business information This is a plain English guide to the application  of the exemption in clause  4(3) of the FOI Act.  An agency can refuse access to exempt matter or an exempt document.  The word matter refers to a piece of information.  It can be a whole page or part of a page, or a single word or figure on a page.  Parts of a page can be exempt when other parts are   not.   Exemptions   are   not   mandatory;   agencies   have   discretion   to   disclose          documents that may be technically exempt where that may properly be done. Purpose “person” A NOTE OF CAUTION Criteria Clause 4(3) forms one part of the exemption in clause 4.   The  purpose  of  the  exemption  in  clause  4  is  to  prevent unwarranted commercial disadvantage to a business or a person from who the government obtains information. The  business  or  the  person  concerned  is  called  a  third party in the FOI Act. The  person  can  be  a  single  person,  such  as  the  sole      operator  of  a  business,  or  it  can  be  a  public  body,  a     company, an incorporated or unincorporated business or association. Clause     4     describes     3     distinct     categories     of                 information  and  there  is  no  over-lap  between  them.   This  means  that  the  same  matter  cannot  be  exempt under more than one of the  subclauses in clause 4. Clause  4  applies  to  information  supplied  by  third    parties.    If  an  agency  wishes  to  claim  exemption  for its  own  commercial  information,  then  it  must  use clause 10. The  exemption  in  clause  4(3)  applies  to  certain  kinds  of information.    It  does  not  apply  to  information  of  the  kind described  in  subclauses  4(1)  and  4(2),  i.e.  trade  secrets and information of commercial value.   For  the  exemption  to  apply,  the  document  must  contain information about: ¦  the   business,   professional,   commercial   or   financial     affairs of a person. AND   ¦  disclosure could reasonably be expected to either ¦  adversely affect those affairs,   OR ¦  prejudice the future supply of information of that kind to     the Government or to an agency. Issued by the Office of the Information Commissioner (WA) Tel: 9220 7888  Fax: 9325 2152  Email: info@foi.wa.gov.au              1