Florida Statutes

Fla. Stat. § 815.045 (2025)

Trade secret information.

✓ 2025 Florida Statutes — current through the 2025 Regular Session

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815.045 Trade secret information.—The Legislature finds that it is a public necessity that trade secret information as defined in s. 812.081 be expressly made confidential and exempt from the public records law because it is a felony to disclose such records. Due to the legal uncertainty as to whether a public employee would be protected from a felony conviction if otherwise complying with chapter 119, and with s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution, it is imperative that a public records exemption be created. The Legislature in making disclosure of trade secrets a crime has clearly established the importance attached to trade secret protection. Disclosing trade secrets in an agency’s possession would negatively impact the business interests of those providing an agency such trade secrets by damaging them in the marketplace, and those entities and individuals disclosing such trade secrets would hesitate to cooperate with that agency, which would impair the effective and efficient administration of governmental functions. Thus, the public and private harm in disclosing trade secrets significantly outweighs any public benefit derived from disclosure, and the public’s ability to scrutinize and monitor agency action is not diminished by nondisclosure of trade secrets.

History.—s. 2, ch. 94-100; s. 41, ch. 2022-5.

Note.—Former s. 119.165.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 8 cases, 2003–2020 · leading case: Sepro Corp. v. Florida Dep't of Env't Prot., 839 So. 2d 781 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003).

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Sepro Corp. v. Florida Dep't of Env't Prot., 839 So. 2d 781 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003). · cites it 4× “What is now codified as section 815.045, Florida Statutes (2002), was originally codified as section 119.”

Surterra Florida, LLC., Alpha Foliage etc. v. Florida Dep't of Health, 223 So. 3d 376 (Fla. 1st DCA 2017). · cites it 5× “See § 815.045, Fla. Stat. (2015) (“The Legislature finds that it is a public necessity that trade secret information .”

James, Hoyer, Newcomer v. Rodale, Inc., 41 So. 3d 386 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010). · cites it 6× “§ 815.045, Fla. Stat. (2009). Rodale did not prove that the complaints and responses “provide[d] the business an advantage, or an opportunity to obtain an advantage, over those who do not know or use” their contents.”

Managed Care of North Am., Inc. v. Florida Healthy Kids Corp. & Delta Dental Ins. Co., 268 So. 3d 856 (Fla. 1st DCA 2019). · cites it 3× “At issue here is the legislatively created exemption to the public records law under section 815.045, Florida Statutes, which protects trade secrets from disclosure.”

Coventry First, LLC v. State Off. of Ins. Reg., 30 So. 3d 552 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010). · cites it 2× “Under Florida law, trade secret information is “expressly made confidential and exempt from the public records law because it is a felony to disclose such records.”

Off. of Ins. Reg. v. State Farm Florida Ins. Co., 213 So. 3d 1104 (Fla. 1st DCA 2017). · cites it 4× “See § 815.045, Fla. Stat. According to the statute, this is because “the public and private harm in disclosing trade secrets significantly outweighs any public benefit derived from disclosure, and the public’s ability to scrutinize and monitor agency action is not diminished by…”

NOS Commc'ns, Inc. v. State, 858 So. 2d 362 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003). · cites it 2× “We note that appellants raised for the first time in their reply brief the argument that the documents at issue were exempt from the Public Records Act under section 815.045, Florida Statutes. Had this argument been raised and rejected in the trial court, and had that rejection…”

B&l Servs., Inc. v. Broward Cnty., Florida (Fla. 4th DCA 2020). · cites it 2× “4th DCA 2018), it found that Broward County’s refusal to produce the unredacted reports could not be unlawful because it was based on the “trade secret” exemption contained in section 815.045, Florida Statutes (2016).”

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