Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: consent

Like many legal questions, the unsatisfactory answer is "it depends". There would be situations where a company would be required to share documents such as in a lawsuit. There are situations where there are contractual obligations to keep things private. (If you are referring to sensitive documents, you may want to include such a provision in future contracts.) There are situations where sharing potentially sensitive information can be argued to be "unfair competition" or otherwise legally questioned. If documents are copyrighted, there may be illegality if shared for purposes of violations. If there are consumer records involved, there are privacy issues. As a general rule, documents may be shared without consent, but as you can see, there are a variety of exceptions to that rule. From the nature of your question, it appears that there is some underlying reason that you think the documents should not have been provided to a third party without your prior consent. Usually, the law is a product of reason and your gut instinct that this is right or wrong will align with legal rights and obligations under the law. An attorney can review your particular situation to provide an analysis of your particular scenario.