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Harris v Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft et al., 2024 ONSC 2341 (CanLII)
Date: 2024-04-23
Docket: 22-662-00, Firestone R.S.J., Charney and Leiper JJ.
In Harris v Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft et al, the Divisional Court confirmed that a party can redact irrelevant information if and only if disclosure of the information “would cause significant harm to the producing party or would infringe public interests deserving of protection”.
In a class action relating to alleged defective Mini Coopers, BMW-AG argued that redaction of personal information was required to comply with GDPR and German privacy law. Their affidavit of documents redacted references to every person in each document.
The motion judge ordered that BMW-AG could redact documents if it could establish both irrelevancy and harm/infringement to public interests, in this case the interests of the person whose personal information was being disclosed. The plaintiff appealed this order.
The Divisional Court also ruled that compliance with foreign law requiring redaction was an appropriate basis for redaction of irrelevant information.