Argus Leader Media v. Food Marketing Institute

The Eighth Circuit affirmed on remand the district court's conclusion that Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) did not apply to SNAP redemption information. The court rejected the USDA's claim that release of the relevant information would cause competitive injury among the covered grocery retailers and held that the claim was speculative. In this case, evidence showed that the contested data—which was nothing more than annual aggregations of SNAP redemptions—lacked the specificity needed to gain material insight into an individual store's financial health, profit margins, inventory, marketing strategies, sales trends, or market share. Furthermore, there was no meaningful evidence that retailers would end their SNAP participation if the contested data were released. View "Argus Leader Media v. Food Marketing Institute" on Justia Law