Recent developments in the XRP lawsuit resulted in Ripple re-filing an appeal demanding that certain exhibits be sealed. This time, the defendant filed an application to seal a limited excerpt, which also contained two questionable and disputed exhibits, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed it in support of its September 8, 2021 letter.

Ripple Considers the Exhibits to be Irrelevant

Ripple is challenging the judicial status of related exhibits. The defense alleged that the evidence required was “investigative materials presented to the court in connection with the disclosure of related disputes.” Therefore, these exhibits were given the title “confidential” in the sense of the “protective order”, which in turn proves that these exhibits are not judicial documents and therefore there is no claim that they are publicly accessible.

Ripple emphasized the irrelevance of these exhibits. The defendant argued that sealing these documents would not affect the SEC’s response to the interrogatories dispute, as the SEC was not referring to the specific information Ripple was trying to seal, only to all of that evidence.

Additionally, Ripple also opposes the issue of public interest, claiming that there is no alleged public access and even if it is allowed the interest will be “minimal”. At the same time, Ripple overturned the judgment “Lugosch v. Pyramid Co. of Onondaga “, which stressed that such information was not useful for” exercising judicial functions or in legal proceedings, and the courts generally considered this to be appropriately sealed.”

“Neither of these documents is relevant, much less material, to the merits of the SEC’s letter response, which concerns the SEC’s responses to Defendants’ Interrogatories. Accordingly, there is no presumptive public access to these documents and, even if there were, the public’s interest in them would be minimal…It is irrelevant to the SEC’s Letter. Indeed, to the extent the SEC even references these exhibits, the SEC does not reference the information Ripple seeks to seal”

Ripple Seal Exhibit Due to Competition Sensitive Business Information

Ripple has raised concerns about the “competition sensitive information” available in the exhibits above. Ripple claims that maintaining the confidentiality of third party legal business information is of paramount importance and if the data is made available to the public it is believed to highlight the plaintiff’s lack of digital asset guidelines.

“There is also a strong interest in maintaining the confidentiality of the narrowly tailored excerpts that Ripple Proposes to seal. These excerpts contain competitively sensitive business information regarding Ripple’s contracts and work orders with third-party customers, as well as non-public memoranda concerning the SEC’s lack of digital asset guidance.”