Abstract
The paper discusses the issues of the obligation to disclose public information by the private
partner’s within the implementation of a public-private partnership (PPP) project in cooperation
with the public entity and the tensions, conflicts and synergies between the principles of
transparency, fair competition and protection of trade secrets. The peculiarity of PPP in this
context lies in the non-identity of the factual and legal situation of the partners running together
the same project. The main premise of PPPs and the motive for using this formula is the
private partner superior competence and efficiency. Thus, the inherent feature of the nature of
PPP is an asymmetry of information, manifested by the private partner’s (agent’s, contractor’s)
different, usually greater, resource of information about the implementation of the project, as
well as a higher ability to process and interpret it, than that of the public entity (principal,
contracting authority). In the context of the provisions on access to public information, this
means the need to consider, among others, such issues as whether the scope of information
provided by the partners is the same, whether the same information should always be considered
public information with respect to each partner, what are the consequences of the partners’
potentially inconsistent approach to interpreting the rationale for limiting or denying access to
public information. These issues need to be explored more extensively due to the relatively low
level of scientific recognition and their significant importance both theoretically and practically.