A shared electric scooter company filed an emergency complaint last Thursday after it learned that the City of Miami wanted to release protected confidential and proprietary trade secret information in response to a public records request. The state court filing asserts that without the requested relief, Neutron Holdings doing business as Lime, will suffer irreparable harm from the release of documents like customer lists, explanations of internal processes, financial information, security audits, operating procedures, and device and safety specifications.
The complaint explains that Miami came into possession of Lime’s information after the company submitted a proposal in response to the city’s call for applications. Miami’s intention is to partner with up to three firms “to implement and operate a successful automated on-demand electric scooter sharing system,” the complaint says. Prior to that, Lime notes that it participated in Miami’s scooter pilot program, offering motorized scooter rentals in the city’s urban center and surrounding neighborhoods over the past four years.
According to the complaint, last Wednesday Miami advised Lime that its proposal, including the trade secret information at issue, would be disclosed in response to a public records request unless Lime could obtain a court-issued protective order by November 24. Lime reportedly responded by offering to make the redactions to the confidential information contained in its proposal, but the city declined, “arbitrarily decid[ing] that the material is not a protected trade secret.”
The plaintiff requests an in camera hearing to present evidence, as well as an injunction preventing the information disclosure and a declaratory judgment stating that the information is exempt from public record request disclosure all together.
Lime is represented by Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson P.A.
