ELLINGTON, Judge.
Electronic Transaction Consultants Corporation filed this action in the Superior Court of Fulton County seeking to enjoin the State Road and Tollway Authority from releasing a certain document in response to a third party's request under Georgia's Open Records Act, OCGA § 50-18-70 et seq. After a hearing, the trial court determined that the document, a detailed price proposal that Electronic submitted to the Authority as part of its winning bid to supply part of a highway tolling system project, contains Electronic's trade secrets and is exempt from production under the Act. Based on this determination, the trial court permanently enjoined the Authority from releasing the document.
"Entry of a permanent injunction is appropriate [only] in clear and urgent cases where there is a vital necessity to prevent a
(Citation and punctuation omitted.) Id. at 576(2), 654 S.E.2d 469.
Georgia's Open Records Act provides:
OCGA § 50-18-70(b). "The purpose of Georgia's Open Records Act is to allow the public to evaluate the expenditure of public funds and to foster confidence in government through openness to the public." (Punctuation and footnote omitted.) City of Atlanta v. Corey Entertainment, 278 Ga. 474, 476(1), 604 S.E.2d 140 (2004).
Among the exemptions to the Act's requirement that a public record be open to inspection are "[a]ny trade secrets obtained from a person or business entity which are of a privileged or confidential nature and required by law to be submitted to a government agency[.]" OCGA § 50-18-72(b)(1). Under Georgia law, "trade secret" is defined as
OCGA § 10-1-761(4). "Whether a particular type of information constitutes a trade secret is a question of fact." (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Douglas Asphalt Co. v. E.R. Snell Contractor, 282 Ga.App. 546, 549, 639 S.E.2d 372 (2006).
The document at issue in this case is Electronic's response to the Authority's "Request for Proposal for the Tolling Systems Integrator/I-85 Express Lanes & Back Office Project." In Electronic's verified complaint for injunctive relief, it alleged that the document
Electronic's price proposal breaks the total project into several components: implementation services, hardware, software, maintenance and hosting, and spares. Each of those components has multiple subparts; for
In its order enjoining the Authority from releasing Electronic's detailed price proposal, the trial court accepted Electronic's assertions that the unredacted price proposal "indicates how [Electronic] designs and provides its systems and what each component costs, thereby enabling a competitor to determine how [Electronic] would perform the work and what is being charged for each component[,]" and that the way Electronic "compiles and integrates its servicing and pricing data is critical to its ability to deliver its services competitively."
We conclude that Electronic failed to provide any evidence to support its assertion that the detailed pricing information in its unredacted price proposal would enable a competitor to deduce how Electronic designs its systems and, therefore, merits protection under the trade secrets exemption. The conclusory statement in Electronic's verified complaint, that the method by which it allocates costs and pricing for the services it provides is unique, provides no specific basis to evaluate its claims. Electronic did not present the testimony or affidavit of any agent or employee with knowledge of its design process. Thus, there was no evidence before the trial court explaining that the number of, to continue with the example given above, cameras, servers, enclosures, and switches Electronic would use to provide ten CCTV camera locations was dictated by design decisions that might differ from the design decisions made by other bidders. Absent such evidence, there was no evidence from which the trial court could find that an unredacted version of the price proposal, showing the quantity of each line item and the unit price, would enable a competitor to deduce Electronic's system design, as it claimed.
On this record, Electronic failed to support its contention that its detailed price proposal contains its trade secrets. Because there was no evidence to support the judgment, the trial court manifestly abused its discretion in enjoining the Authority from opening the document to inspection upon request. Cf. Smith v. DeKalb County, 288 Ga.App. at 576-578(2), 654 S.E.2d 469.
Judgment reversed.
ANDREWS, P.J., and DOYLE, J., concur.