Arguing that companies that sue it should not be granted anonymity, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is asking a federal judge to reveal the names of several companies that are anonymously suing the agency after a lawyer representing the group was denied entry into an investigative hearing.

The details of the legal battle come courtesy of The National Law Journal.

According to the National Law Journal report, the CFPB asked a federal judge to unseal litigation filed against the agency by several companies in the credit-repair services industry.

The companies requested the court documents be sealed because the public disclosure of the lawsuit ““will surely do irreparable reputational and financial harm.”

But the CFPB is arguing that the names of the companies should be brought out into the open.

From the National Law Journal:

The plaintiffs “should not be allowed to shield from public disclosure either their names or other identifying information in this case simply because they are the subjects of a bureau investigation,” Tamra Moore, a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lawyer, wrote in court papers in December.

Moore said the plaintiffs “have not demonstrated that their need for anonymity is either ‘critical’ or ‘unusual’ thereby warranting this court’s grant of the ‘rare dispensation’ of allowing them to proceed pseudonymously.”

The attorneys representing the unnamed companies argued that “sealing the case will protect the plaintiffs from the serious harm that would result if its identity as the subject of an ongoing investigation were to be disclosed to the public at large.”