The U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that FOIA’s exemption for a business’s confidential commercial or financial information applies to information that the business treats as private and gives to the government under an assurance of privacy. Food Marketing Inst. v. Argus Leader Media.

While this holding sounds pretty mundane, the opinion is actually extremely significant. The Court invalidated the standard that the federal courts had consistently applied to this exemption for over 40 years–that commercial or financial information is confidential under FOIA only if its disclosure would cause substantial financial harm to the business. With the Supreme Court’s removal of the harm requirement, it will be easier for businesses (as well as individuals) to shield their commercial and financial information from disclosure under FOIA.

I think this FOIA opinion is going to have an impact on how future New Jersey cases rule on disputes involving the equivalent OPRA exemption for “commercial or financial information obtained from any source.” Similar to the Supreme Court’s analysis in Food Marketing Inst., the Appellate Division opinions that have considered OPRA’s exemption have looked to whether the information is treated as confidential, without regard to considerations of potential harm from disclosure.

However, there are few precedential New Jersey cases on this exemption. Future federal court rulings applying the Supreme Court’s new standard will likely be persuasive in a New Jersey case concerning whether particular business information may be withheld under OPRA’s exemption for commercial and proprietary information.