[nosefurhairdo]

I'm not a lawyer, but it seems possible that an enterprise software licensing agreement could contain a non-disclosure agreement or confidentiality clause.

Not making a value judgement and happy to be corrected if this is not a thing.

[airstrike]

but then that's a breach of an NDA which is not the same as sharing a quote-unquote "trade secret"

[willcipriano]

Sounds like something the FTC should investigate.

[mediaman]

What are they going to investigate?

The FTC is going to render contractual terms negotiated in good faith between well-represented and sophisticated commercial buyers “just because”?

If a big buyer wants better terms, the seller might give it to them under the condition the pricing info isn’t leaked, spoiling the rest of their market. Otherwise they don’t give it. So the buyer agrees to confidentiality to get the best terms. There’s zero chance the FTC gets in the middle of this kind of negotiation.

[lotsofpulp]

> The FTC is going to render contractual terms negotiated in good faith between well-represented and sophisticated commercial buyers “just because”?

Because without price transparency, markets do not work (microecon 101, prices are the signals from which supply and demand curve movements are determined). How can participants in a society determine where to allocate supply of resources without being able to see prices?

And making markets work more efficiently should surely be in the purview of the Federal Trade Commission.

[thayne]

One might be able to argue that by keeping the pricing secret the big buyer is colluding with the seller to give the seller an advantage in in negotiating prices with other buyers, which could include competitors of the big buyer.

I think that would be unlikely to go anywhere with the current FTC though.