Commercial information of private body

(1) Subject to subsection (2), the head of a private body may refuse a request for access to a record of the body if the record— (a) contains trade secrets of the private body; (b) contains financial, commercial, scientific or technical information, other than trade secrets, of the private body, the disclosure of which would be likely to cause harm to the commercial or financial interests of the body; (c) contains information, the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected— (i) to put the private body at a disadvantage in contractual or other negotiations; or (ii) to prejudice the body in commercial competition; or (d) is a computer program, as defined in section 1(1) of the Copyright Act, 1978 (Act 98 of 1978), owned by the private body, except insofar as it is required to give access to a record to which access is granted in terms of this Act.

(2) A record may not be refused in terms of subsection (1) insofar as it consists of information about the results of any product or environmental testing or other investigation supplied by the private body or the results of any such testing or investigation carried out by or on behalf of the private body and its disclosure would reveal a serious public safety or environmental risk.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2), the results of any product or environmental testing or other investigation do not include the results of preliminary testing or other investigation conducted for the purpose of developing methods of testing or other investigation.