Before exchanging Authority Confidential Information or Confidential Information, the DOJ will have reached an understanding that the foreign authority will maintain the information in confidence and in accordance with that authority’s laws and rules. This may be through bilateral or multilateral co-operation agreements or arrangements, or other means. Parties or third parties will often provide a waiver permitting the sharing of their Confidential Information. The DOJ and FTC have developed a Model Waiver.  See: https://www.justice.gov/atr/page/file/1201041/download,  and https://www.justice.gov/atr/file/705866/download.  In the absence of a waiver, the DOJ and FTC may share confidential information with their counterparts pursuant to a mutual assistance agreement under the International Antitrust Enforcement Assistance Act of 1994, 15 U.S.C. 6201, et seq (“IAEAA”).  Under the IAEAA, the U.S. can enter into bilateral antitrust mutual assistance agreements (“IAEAA Agreement”) with foreign governments that: authorize the DOJ and FTC to share otherwise confidential antitrust evidence in their possession with foreign competition authorities (§ 2); use their respective investigative powers (subpoenas, CIDs) to gather antitrust evidence for use by foreign competition authorities (§ 3); and, withhold from public disclosure any antitrust evidence obtained from foreign competition authorities (§ 8(B)).  The IAEAA does not apply to materials submitted pursuant to U.S. premerger notification rules under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (“HSR ACT”), 15 U.S.C. § 6204(1).   The IAEAA sets out specific confidentiality safeguards for sharing information under an IAEAA Agreement. The U.S.-Australia Mutual Antitrust Enforcement Assistance Agreement (“Agreement”), the only IAEAA Agreement concluded to date, provides that requests for assistance under the Agreement shall be accompanied by written assurances by the relevant competition authority that there have been no significant modifications to the confidentiality laws and procedures described in Annex A of the Agreement. The U.S. and Australian competition authorities maintain the confidentiality of any information communicated to them in confidence under the Agreement.  The IAEAA requires that the nature of the assistance provided generally be reciprocal, except in regard to procedures, or to a particular case. See also Multilateral Mutual Assistance and Cooperation Framework for Competition Authorities (“MMAC”), Annexure A, Model Agreement, Chapter 11, https://www.justice.gov/atr/page/file/1311291/download, which establishes a template for future IAEAA agreements among the signatories, and possibly others.