U.S. Code of Federal Regulations

Regulations most recently checked for updates: Dec 03, 2024

§ 2.201 - Definitions.

For the purposes of this subpart:

(a) Person means an individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other public or private organization or legal entity, including Federal, State or local governmental bodies and agencies and their employees.

(b) Business means any person engaged in a business, trade, employment, calling or profession, whether or not all or any part of the net earnings derived from such engagement by such person inure (or may lawfully inure) to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.

(c) Business information (sometimes referred to simply as information) means any information which pertains to the interests of any business, which was developed or acquired by that business, and (except where the context otherwise requires) which is possessed by EPA in recorded form.

(d) Affected business means, with reference to an item of business information, a business which has asserted (and not waived or withdrawn) a business confidentiality claim covering the information, or a business which could be expected to make such a claim if it were aware that disclosure of the information to the public was proposed.

(e) Reasons of business confidentiality include the concept of trade secrecy and other related legal concepts which give (or may give) a business the right to preserve the confidentiality of business information and to limit its use or disclosure by others in order that the business may obtain or retain business advantages it derives from its rights in the information. The definition is meant to encompass any concept which authorizes a Federal agency to withhold business information under 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4), as well as any concept which requires EPA to withhold information from the public for the benefit of a business under 18 U.S.C. 1905 or any of the various statutes cited in §§ 2.301 through 2.309.

(f) [Reserved]

(g) Information which is available to the public is information in EPA's possession which EPA will furnish to any member of the public upon request and which EPA may make public, release or otherwise make available to any person whether or not its disclosure has been requested.

(h) Business confidentiality claim (or, simply, claim) means a claim or allegation that business information is entitled to confidential treatment for reasons of business confidentiality, or a request for a determination that such information is entitled to such treatment.

(i) Voluntarily submitted information means business information in EPA's possession—

(1) The submission of which EPA had no statutory or contractual authority to require; and

(2) The submission of which was not prescribed by statute or regulation as a condition of obtaining some benefit (or avoiding some disadvantage) under a regulatory program of general applicability, including such regulatory programs as permit, licensing, registration, or certification programs, but excluding programs concerned solely or primarily with the award or administration by EPA of contracts or grants.

(j) Recorded means written or otherwise registered in some form for preserving information, including such forms as drawings, photographs, videotape, sound recordings, punched cards, and computer tape or disk.

(k) [Reserved]

(l) Administrator, Regional Administrator, General Counsel, Regional Counsel, and Freedom of Information Officer mean the EPA officers or employees occupying the positions so titled.

(m) EPA office means any organizational element of EPA, at any level or location. (The terms EPA office and EPA legal office are used in this subpart for the sake of brevity and ease of reference. When this subpart requires that an action be taken by an EPA office or by an EPA legal office, it is the responsibility of the officer or employee in charge of that office to take the action or ensure that it is taken.)

(n) EPA legal office means the EPA General Counsel and any EPA office over which the General Counsel exercises supervisory authority, including the various Offices of Regional Counsel. (See paragraph (m) of this section.)

(o) A working day is any day on which Federal Government offices are open for normal business. Saturdays, Sundays, and official Federal holidays are not working days; all other days are.