Legal Question in Business Law in Illinois
Without an NDA in place, is it illegal for a company to share one supplier's pricing with another?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Probably not. Trade secrets are protected by the Illinois Trade Secrets Act and do not require the presence of an agreement. It is unlikely, however, that a supplier's pricing is a trade secret, although a specially negotiated price list for a single customer could conceivably be a trade secret.
It is also possible that a supplier could come up with another novel argument. For example, if the information were disclosed solely to injure the supplier (rather than to negotiate a better price from other suppliers), the injured supplier might be able to build a case of some sort of intentional tort.
But, generally, the concept is that "information wants to be free." Unless there is a specific agreement restricting a party from divulging pricing information, it is difficult to see how the disclosure would create liability for the disclosing party.
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