Notice shall be given to a submitter whenever the information requested is commercial information and has been designated by the submitter as information deemed protected from disclosure under Exemption 4 of the Act, or the Agency otherwise has reason to believe that the information may be protected from disclosure under Exemption 4. For the purpose of applying the notice requirements, commercial information is information provided by a submitter and in the possession of NASA, that may arguably be exempt from disclosure under the provisions of Exemption 4 of the FOIA (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4)). The meaning ascribed to this term for the purpose of this notice requirement is separate and should not be confused with use of this or similar terms in determining whether information satisfies one of the elements of Exemption 4.

A submitter is a person or entity outside the Federal Government from whom the Agency directly or indirectly obtains commercial or financial information. The term submitter includes, but is not limited to corporations, state governments, individuals, and foreign governments.

The notice requirements of § 1206.601 will not apply if:

The information has been lawfully published or officially made available to the public; or

Disclosure of the information is required by a statute (other than this part); or

The submitter has received notice of a previous FOIA request which encompassed information requested in the later request, and the Agency intends to withhold and/or release information in the same manner as in the previous FOIA request.

An additional limited exception to the notice requirements of § 1206.601, to be used only when all of the following exceptional circumstances are found to be present, authorizes the Agency to withhold information that is the subject of a FOIA request, based on Exemption 4 (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4)), without providing the submitter individual notice when:

The Agency would be required to provide notice to over ten (10) submitters, in which case, notification may be accomplished by posting or publishing the notice in a place reasonably calculated to accomplish notification.

Absent any response to the published notice, the Agency determines that if it provided notice as is otherwise required by § 1206.601, it is reasonable to assume that the submitter would object to disclosure of the information based on Exemption 4; and,

If the submitter expressed the anticipated objections, the Agency would uphold those objections.

The exception shall be used only with the approval of the Chief Counsel of the Center, the Counsel to the Inspector General, or the Associate General Counsel responsible for providing advice on the request. This exception shall not be used for a class of documents or requests, but only as warranted by an individual FOIA request.