Information Protection in UK Law

Secondly, neither the parties nor the judge referred to either European Parliament and Council Directive 2016/943/EU of 8 June 2016 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure (“the Trade Secrets Directive”), or the Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc.) Regulations 2018 (SI 2018/597) (“the Regulations”) which implement the Trade Secrets Directive, until this Court drew them to the parties' attention.

Where it is necessary to protect trade secrets, however, open justice must give way to a still greater principle, which is justice itself. The court is not engaged in an exercise of trying to balance incommensurables. This may make it impossible for the public to understand the details of the court's reasoning, but that is the price that must be paid for proper protection of trade secrets.

In that case there was no departure from the open justice principle because there was no need for such a departure. Even lower grade confidential information is entitled to protection where its publication is not necessary for open justice.