Freedom of Information Act, 2020 22. Protection of commercial information of third party and private entity (1) (2) (3) 23. Zimbabwe Subject to subsection (3), the information officer of an entity shall refuse a request for access to information of the entity if the information contains— (a) trade secrets of a third party; or (b) financial, commercial, scientific or technical information that is proprietary to a third party, and the disclosure of which would be likely to cause harm to the commercial or financial interests of that third party; or (c) information supplied in confidence by a third party the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected— (i) to put that third party at a disadvantage in contractual or other negotiations; or (ii) to prejudice that third party in commercial competition. Subject to subsection (3), the information officer of a private entity shall refuse a request for access to the information of the private entity which contains— (a) trade secrets of that private entity; or (b) financial, commercial, scientific or technical information that is proprietary to that private entity, the disclosure of which would be likely to cause harm to the commercial or financial interests of that private entity; or (c) information supplied in confidence by a third party the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected— (i) to put that third party at a disadvantage in contractual or other negotiations; or (ii) to prejudice that third party in commercial competition. The information officer shall not refuse to provide information in terms of subsection (1) or (2) if that information consists of information— (a) already publicly available; or (b) about a third party who has consented in terms of section 33(2) or otherwise in writing to its disclosure to the applicant concerned; or (c) the disclosure of which would facilitate accountability and transparency of decisions taken by an entity, other than preliminary results of any tests, research, preparations or other investigations conducted for the purpose of developing any policy; or (d) which relates to the expenditure of public funds; or (e) the disclosure of which would reveal misconduct or deception. Protection of certain other confidential information of third party (1) Subject to subsection (2), an information officer— (a) shall refuse a request for access to information of the entity if the disclosure of the information would constitute a breach of a duty of confidence owed to a third party in terms of any agreement; or (b) may refuse a request for access to information of the entity if the information consists of information that was supplied in confidence by a third party and the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to prejudice the future supply of similar information or information from the same source. By Laws.Africa and contributors. Licensed under CC-BY. Share widely and freely. 11