Ahmed Ashour v. Arizona Beverages USA LLC

Background

The parties filed motions seeking to seal exhibits connected with the defendants’ motion for summary judgment. On March 28, 2025, the Court granted those motions in part and denied them in part. The Court denied without prejudice requests involving retainer agreements between the plaintiffs and their counsel, plaintiffs’ deposition testimony, an Arizona Beverages USA LLC personnel chart, certain internal emails, and proposed redactions to other filings. The Court directed the parties to submit narrowly tailored redactions and allowed them to renew their sealing motion.

On April 25, 2025, the parties filed a renewed motion to seal with exhibits containing the proposed narrower redactions.

Ruling

The Court granted the renewed motion to seal because the parties’ redactions complied with its March 28 order. The Court specifically allowed redactions to references to the defendants’ pricing methodology in Don Vultaggio’s deposition transcript and to information about the specific ingredients in the defendants’ beverages in discovery responses. The Court stated that the pricing information was generally treated as sealable and that the ingredient information was proprietary technical and trade-secret information whose protection outweighed the public’s right of access.

The parties had indicated that they did not oppose unsealing the plaintiffs’ responses and objections to the defendants’ initial interrogatories. The Court declined to unseal those exhibits because they contained the plaintiffs’ home addresses, which the Court had previously found properly subject to redaction. The Court ordered the plaintiffs to file public versions with the addresses redacted by May 9, 2025.

The Clerk of Court was directed to unseal the specified filings and attached exhibits listed in the order, including ECF Nos. 314, 315 and listed attachments, 316, 317, 320, 321, 330, specified parts of 333, 343, and 350 and its attached exhibit.