Bloomberg L.P. v. USPS, No. 22-6112, 2023 WL 3976010 (S.D.N.Y. June 13, 2023) (Cote, J.)

Bloomberg L.P. v. USPS, No. 22-6112, 2023 WL 3976010 (S.D.N.Y. June 13, 2023) (Cote, J.)

Re:  Request for certain anonymized change-of-address (“COA”) data

Disposition:  Granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment; denying plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment

• Exemption 3:  The court relates that “[t]he USPS cites 39 U.S.C. § 410(c)(2) . . . as the applicable withholding statute, and the Plaintiffs do not dispute that this provision is a withholding statute under Exemption 3.”  “The sole issue in dispute is whether the data being withheld falls within the scope of § 4[1]0(c)(2).”  “Section 410(c)(2) is a provision of the Postal Reorganization Act (“PRA”), 39 U.S.C. §§ 101 et seq.”  “The exception to FOIA upon which USPS relies provides that § 410(b)(1) ‘shall not require the disclosure of information of a commercial nature, including trade secrets, whether or not obtained from a person outside the Postal Service, which under good business practice would not be publicly disclosed.’”  “The PRA does not define ‘commercial nature’ or ‘good business practice.’”  “The parties dispute whether the Requested COA Data (1) constitutes ‘information of a commercial nature,’ and (2) ‘would not be publicly disclosed’ ‘under good business practice.’”  The court holds that “[t]he Requested COA Data are ‘information of a commercial nature’ under § 410(c)(2).”  “To obtain more revenue for itself, USPS has decided to license COA data to subscribers for a fee.”  “Exchanging data for money falls within the plain meaning of the word ‘commerce’ and the term ‘information of a commercial nature.’”  “Because the information sought by the Plaintiffs is being used for commercial purposes by the USPS and is directly related to the USPS’s participation in commerce, the information is ‘of a commercial nature’ under § 410(c)(2).”  The court relates that “Plaintiffs assert that, in order for the requested information to be exempt from FOIA under § 410(c)(2), the information must be ‘of a commercial nature in the first instance.’”  “Because the Requested COA Data were not commercial ‘in the first instance,’ the Plaintiffs argue, they are not ‘information of a commercial nature.’”  The court finds that “[t]his argument fails. It seeks to add a limitation to the statutory language that does not appear in the statute.”
  
  Next, the court finds that “[t]he Requested COA Data is commercial data that would not be publicly disclosed under good business practice.”  “As explained by [defendant], location data demonstrating the movement of people is a valuable commodity, and companies that sell this information would not ordinarily release that information for free to the public.”  “Disclosure through FOIA of the data underlying the statistics that the USPS seeks to license through [Population Mobility Trends (“PMT”), a licensed data offering,] would defeat PMT’s revenue-generating purpose.”  The court relates that “[plaintiffs] argue that public disclosure of some of the information available through PMT may even promote PMT and benefit the USPS.”  The court finds that “[t]his argument fails.”  “The USPS can decide for itself how much COA data it wishes to share publicly and free of cost.”