City of Providence, Rhode Island v. Bats Global Markets, Inc.
- Jesse Furman
- 1:14-cv-02811
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In City of Providence v. BATS Global Markets, Judge Furman granted an application to unseal specified filings while leaving Exhibits 11 and 12 outside the unsealing list.
The plaintiffs, Nasdaq, Nasdaq BX, the customer whose technical information appeared in Exhibit 11, and members of the public seeking access to the listed court filings were affected.
What happened
City of Providence, Rhode Island v. BATS Global Markets, Inc. involved plaintiffs’ request to seal documents filed with a challenge to Nasdaq’s privilege log.
Nasdaq did not object to making most of the filings public, but asked that Exhibits 11 and 12 remain sealed because they contained customer technical information and nonpublic business and regulatory information.
Judge Jesse M. Furman granted the application, directed the Clerk to make the listed filings public, and terminated the identified sealing-related docket entries. Exhibits 11 and 12 were not included in the unsealing list.
The detailed version
- City of Providence, Rhode Island v. Bats Global Markets, Inc. · No. 1:14-cv-02811
- Jesse Furman
- Mar. 15, 2021
Background
The filing concerned plaintiffs’ March 9, 2021 letter-motion to seal documents submitted with their challenge to Nasdaq’s privilege log. Nasdaq stated that plaintiffs had filed 13 exhibits under seal, although Nasdaq had designated only five documents as confidential. Nasdaq did not object to unsealing Exhibits 1 through 10 and 13, or the redacted portions of the letter-motion.
Nasdaq’s request
Nasdaq asked that Exhibits 11 and 12 remain sealed. It described Exhibit 11 as correspondence with a customer about technical aspects of Nasdaq products and services, including specific connections, ports, and Internet Protocol addresses. Nasdaq described Exhibit 12 as a draft slide presentation prepared for Nasdaq’s then-chief executive officer to present to the Securities and Exchange Commission during nonpublic meetings about exchange regulation. Nasdaq asserted that these documents contained confidential customer, business, competitive, and regulatory information.
Ruling
The court granted the application. The Clerk of Court was directed to unseal, meaning convert to public view without restrictions, the filings listed in the order: ECF Nos. 549, 549-1 through 549-10, and 549-15. The order also directed the Clerk to terminate ECF Nos. 547 and 561. Exhibits 11 and 12 were not included in the unsealing direction. The text identifies Judge Jesse M. Furman as the judge who issued the order.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.