[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 235 (Thursday, December 8, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-30170]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: December 8, 1994]


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Part VIII





Federal Trade Commission





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16 CFR Part 305




Appliance Labeling Rule; Final Rule
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

16 CFR Part 305

 
Appliance Labeling Rule

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Final Rule: partial delay of compliance dates.

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SUMMARY: The Commission, for certain products, delays the compliance 
dates for certain disclosure requirements contained in two recent 
amendments to its Appliance Labeling Rule, published on July 1, 1994, 
and Sept. 28, 1994, in order to allow manufacturers time to comply with 
the disclosure requirements of the amendments. Until the new mandatory 
compliance dates for the amendments (explained more fully below), 
manufacturers of refrigerators, refrigerator-freezers, freezer, clothes 
washers, dishwashers, and room air conditioners must comply either with 
the corresponding provisions in the current Appliance Labeling Rule, or 
with the amendments beginning on their effective date of December 28, 
1994. Manufacturers of pool heaters, instantaneous water heaters, and 
heat pump water heaters must comply with the new disclosure 
requirements in the amendments either beginning on the announced 
effective date of December 29, 1994, or beginning on the new mandatory 
compliance date, as explained more fully below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
James Mills, Attorney, Division of Enforcement, Federal Trade 
Commission, Washington, D.C. 20580 (202-326-3035).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

A. The Comprehensive Review Rulemaking

    On July 1, 1994, the Commission published comprehensive amendments 
to the Appliance Labeling Rule (``Rule'') to improve the Rule in light 
of the experience the Commission has gained since the Rule became 
effective in 1980.\1\ The effective date of the Comprehensive 
Amendments is December 28, 1994. Included among the amendments are 
three changes that will necessitate the use of new labels for all 
products covered by the Rule: format changes to make the required 
labels more ``user-friendly'';\2\ changes in the energy usage 
descriptors required on labels for some products;\3\ and new product 
sub-categories for some products for ranges of comparability 
purposes.\4\
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    \1\59 FR 34014. The Rule was originally published at 44 FR 66466 
(November 19, 1979, effective May 19, 1980).
    \2\This amendment affects labels for all covered products.
    \3\This amendment affects labels for refrigerators, 
refrigerator-freezers, freezers, clothes washers, dishwashers, and 
storage-type water heaters.
    \4\This amendment affects labels for refrigerators, 
refrigerator-freezers, freezes, clothes washers, room air 
conditioners, furnaces, and boilers.
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    Because of the requirements that manufacturers must disclose new 
energy usage descriptors and/or group their products into new product 
sub-categories, the Commission must publish new ranges of comparability 
for the products affected by these requirements.\5\ The new ranges must 
use the new descriptors and/or be organized into the new sub-
categories.\6\ Without these new ranges to use on their revised labels, 
manufacturers will not be able to prepare labels in accordance with the 
amendments.
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    \5\Under the Rule, each required label on a covered appliance 
must show, in addition to the energy usage of the appliance itself, 
a range, or scale, called a ``range of comparability,'' indicating 
the range of energy consumption or efficiencies for all models of a 
size or capacity comparable to the labeled model. To accomplish 
this, the Rule contains appendices that divide each product category 
into sub-categories--in some cases by function, in others by fuel 
type. For most product categories, these sub-categories are further 
divided into capacity groupings. For example, storage-type water 
heaters are divided into four sub-categories by fuel--natural gas, 
propane, electric, and oil. Each of these sub-categories is further 
divided into increments of capacity expressed in first hour ratings. 
Thus, a label on a gas-fired water heater with a first hour rating 
of 37 gallons will disclose the range of energy consumption of all 
gas-fired water heaters with first hour ratings of between 35 and 40 
gallons.
    \6\All products except central air conditioners and heat pumps 
will have to use new ranges on their revised labels that reflect 
either or both of these new requirements. The product categories and 
descriptors for central air conditioners and heat pumps are 
unchanged by the amendments, although manufacturers of these 
products will have to use the new format for their labels.
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    For the Commission to have the energy usage data necessary to 
prepare revised ranges of comparability, manufacturers must submit the 
data to the Commission, as required by section 305.8 of the Rule. 
Section 305.8(b) requires that manufacturers make annual data 
submissions on specified dates that are different for the various 
product categories: March 1,\7\ May 1,\8\ June 1,\9\ July 1,\10\ and 
August 1.\11\ The requirements for manufacturers to submit data to the 
Commission using the new descriptors and sub-categories, therefore, 
will not become operative until the various submission dates in 1995. 
Because the requirements to submit this necessary information to the 
Commission will become operative after the December 28, 1994, effective 
date of the amendments, some manufacturers will not be able to comply 
with the labeling requirements of the amendments in a timely fashion.
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    \7\Clothes washers.
    \8\Room air conditioners, storage-type water heaters, furnaces, 
and boilers.
    \9\Dishwashers.
    \10\Central air conditioners and heat pumps.
    \11\Refrigerators, refrigerator-freezers, and freezers.
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    In an attempt to resolve this issue in advance, Commission staff 
met with industry and trade association representatives during the 
final months before the Comprehensive Amendments were published. It was 
informally agreed that, after the amendments were published, 
manufacturers would voluntarily submit the new data before the 
effective date of the amendments in enough time for the Commission to 
publish new ranges of comparability and the manufacturers to produce 
new labels using them. This plan proved feasible with respect to 
central air conditioners, heat pumps, furnaces, boilers, and storage-
type water heaters.\12\
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    \12\The Commission published ranges of comparability for use on 
the new labels for central air conditioners and heat pumps on August 
5, 1994 (59 FR 39951), effective December 28, 1994. The Commission 
published ranges of comparability based on the new descriptors and/
or new sub-categories for use on the new labels for storage-type 
water heaters, furnaces, and boilers on September 23, 1994 (59 FR 
48796), effective December 28, 1994.
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    When the amendments were published in July, manufacturers of 
refrigerators, refrigerator-freezers, freezers, clothes washers, 
dishwashers, and room air conditioners, however, informed Commission 
staff that they would need more time to comply with the amendments than 
originally believed. They stated that they now believed that the six 
months between the publication date and the effective date of the 
Comprehensive Amendments would not be enough time to prepare 
submissions and, after the Commission published new ranges based on 
them, to prepare labels and begin affixing them to their products. In 
support of this assertion, they emphasized the magnitude of the extent 
of the changes in the amendments that would affect their products. They 
also pointed out that the timing of the amendments was inconvenient, 
noting that the submission dates in section 305.8(b) of the Rule were 
originally prescribed, at the request of the industry, to run over the 
spring and summer (March to August) because these were slow times in 
production and it was thus more possible to change labels than it would 
be during the winter (the time of the effective date of the 
Comprehensive Amendments). Accordingly, they asked for an extension of 
the effective date.

B. The Pool Heater Rulemaking

    On September 28, 1994, the Commission published amendments to 
expand the Rule's coverage to include pool heaters, instantaneous water 
heaters, and heat pump water heaters.\13\ The effective date of these 
amendments is December 29, 1994. When the Commission published the Pool 
Heater Amendments, it was aware that it would be difficult to publish 
ranges of comparability for these products in time for manufacturers to 
begin labeling by the effective date, but it determined to address the 
compliance question for both the Comprehensive and Pool Heater 
Amendments in a single, later action.
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    \13\59 FR 49556.
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II. Delay in Mandatory Compliance Dates

    In consideration of the foregoing, the Commission delays the date 
for mandatory compliance with those provisions of the Comprehensive 
Amendments that require using the new label format\14\ and the new 
energy usage descriptors\15\ and sub-categories\16\ on labels and in 
catalogs,\17\ insofar as those requirements apply to refrigerators, 
refrigerator-freezers, freezers, clothes washers, dishwashers, and room 
air conditioners. The Commission also delays the date for mandatory 
compliance with those provisions of the Pool Heater Amendments that 
require labeling pool heaters, instantaneous water heaters, and heat 
pump water heaters.\18\ The Commission is leaving in place the 
mandatory compliance dates for all the requirements in both sets of 
amendments insofar as they apply to the Rule's submission requirements 
in section 305.8, thus requiring manufacturers to make the appropriate 
submissions as they come due in 1995 and thereafter.
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    \14\Sections 305.11(a)(1)-(3); 305.11(a)(5)(i)(H); Prototype 
Labels 1-5; and Sample Labels 1-9.
    \15\Sections 305.2(h) and 305.11(a)(5)(i)(E).
    \16\Section 305.11(a)(5)(i)(F); Appendices A1-A8, B1-B3, E, F, 
and G1-G8.
    \17\Sections 305.14(a)(2) and (4).
    \18\Sections 305.11(a)(5)(ii)(C)-(E) and (G), and 305.14(a)(3).
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    These delays will be discontinued when the Commission's notices of 
ranges of comparability are published in 1995. The disclosure 
requirements of the amendments with respect to an enumerated type of 
product will become mandatory three months after the range of 
comparability for that type of product is published. Approximate dates 
on which submissions, publication, and labeling will take place are set 
out in the two tables, below.
    Finally, the obligation to comply with all the provisions of the 
Comprehensive Amendments is unchanged with respect to storage-type 
water heaters, furnaces, boilers, central air conditioners, and heat 
pumps.

         Table I.--Products Covered by Comprehensive Amendments         
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                                                   Estimated            
                                      Submission     range     Estimated
          Product category               date     publication   labeling
                                                      date        date  
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Clothes Washers.....................  Mar. 1....  Apr. 1.....  July 1.  
Room Air Conditioners...............  May 1.....  June 1.....  Sept. 1. 
Dishwashers.........................  June 1....  July 1.....  Oct. 1.  
Refrigerators, Refrigerator-          Aug. 1....  Sept. 1....  Dec. 1.  
 freezers, and Freezers.                                                
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          Table II.--Products Covered by Pool Heater Amendments         
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                                                   Estimated            
                                      Submission     range     Estimated
          Product category               date     publication   labeling
                                                      date        date  
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Pool Heaters, Instantaneous Water     May 1.....  June 1.....  Sept. 1. 
 Heaters, and Heat Pump Water                                           
 Heaters.                                                               
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List of Subjects in 16 CFR Part 305

    Advertising, Energy conservation, Household appliances, Labeling, 
Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

    Authority: 42 U.S.C. 6294.

    By direction of the Commission, Commissioner Varney not 
participating.
Donald S. Clark,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 94-30170 Filed 12-7-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-M