Citadel Securities Americas LLC v. Portofino Technologies AG

Background

On September 19, 2023, the defendants asked the court to seal Exhibits 1 and 2 at Docket Number 45. The plaintiffs joined the motion. The exhibits concerned statements of claims and defenses in a confidential arbitration in another forum. The information had some relevance to the defendants’ motion to pause this case while the arbitration proceeded, but the court had denied that motion.

Legal standard

The court applied a three-step test from the Second Circuit. First, it considered whether the materials were “judicial documents,” meaning documents placed before the court that are relevant to the court’s work and useful in the judicial process. Second, it assessed the strength of the public’s presumptive right to access them. Third, it identified legitimate reasons against disclosure and balanced those reasons against the public-access presumption.

Ruling

The court determined that the exhibits were judicial documents, but that the presumption of public access was low because the information was limited to claims and defenses from a confidential arbitration. The court found that the privacy interests of the arbitration participants principally weighed against disclosure and outweighed the public’s interest in the substance of the documents at this stage. Judge Gregory H. Woods granted the motion to seal. The court stated that the decision applied only to the information at issue at this stage of the case and on the existing record. The clerk was directed to terminate the motion at Docket Number 44.