So an agency going through a current A-76 process that receives a FOIA request for records that would "enable an informed bidder . . . to make a closer approximation [of its bid] than would be possible on the basis of the information to be released with the bid invitation and other available data" should rely on this precedent, and the government's special commercial privilege under Exemption 5, in protecting its commercial interests in that process. Id. (emphasizing the commercial privilege's applicability where "the documents sought might place previously unavailable information in the hands of bidders who could use it to the competitive disadvantage of the government's in-house bid"); see also Taylor Woodrow Int'l v. United States, No. 88-429, 1989 WL 1095561, at *3 (W.D. Wash. Apr. 5, 1989) (upholding an agency's use of the commercial privilege where disclosure would permit the FOIA requester to take "unfair commercial advantage" of the agency); Hack v. Dep't of Energy, 538 F. Supp. 1098, 1104 (D.D.C. 1982) (applying the commercial privilege to procurement records where otherwise "the agency would not be on equal footing" with private-sector bidders). (posted 1/24/06)
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