Legal background Legal background for Section 59 (Overseas information disclosure)
Part 9 of the Enterprise Act 2002 imposes a restriction on the disclosure of information that comes to a public authority in connection with, among other things, a merger investigation under Part 3 of the Enterprise Act 2002 or an antitrust investigation under the Competition Act 1998 ("specified information"). The restriction applies where the information relates to the affairs of an individual, during the lifetime of the individual, or any business of an undertaking, while the undertaking continues in existence, unless the disclosure is permitted by one of the disclosure gateways in Part 9.
	A public authority may disclose specified information to an overseas public authority in the following circumstances:
where the public authority has obtained the necessary consents (section 239(1));
to comply with an EU obligation (section 240) 2 ; or
for the purpose of facilitating the exercise by the public authority of its statutory functions (section 241(1)).
	In addition, section 243(1), (2) and (12) of the Act, permits the disclosure of specified information to an overseas public authority where the disclosure is to facilitate the performance of an overseas public authority’s functions. This gateway does not currently apply to information that comes to a public authority in connection with a merger investigation under Part 3 of the Enterprise Act 2002 (section 243(3)(d)).