[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 157 (Friday, August 14, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43714-43715]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-21889]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has submitted to OMB for
review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act information
collection requirements contained in its regulations under the
Comprehensive Smokeless Tobacco Health Education Act of 1986
(``Smokeless Tobacco Act'' or the ``Act''). The current Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) clearance expires on August 31, 1998. The
FTC proposes that OMB extend its approval for the regulations an
additional three years through August 31, 2001.
DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before September 14, 1998.
ADDRESSES: Send written comments to the Office of Management and
Budget, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, New Executive
Office Building, Room 10202, Washington, DC 20503, ATTN: Edward Clarke,
Desk Officer for the Federal Trade Commission, and to Gary M.
Greenfield, Office of the General Counsel, Federal Trade Commission,
Washington, DC 20580, (202) 326-2753. All comments should be identified
as responding to this notice.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or
copies of the proposed information requirements should be addressed to
Nancy Warder, Attorney, Division of Advertising Practices, Bureau of
Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC 20580,
(202) 326-3048.
[[Page 43715]]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The FTC has submitted a request to OMB to
extend the existing clearance to collect information (OMB Control
Number 3084-0082) under FTC regulations promulgated pursuant to the
Smokeless Tobacco Act (16 CFR Part 307). A Federal Register Notice with
a 60-day comment period soliciting comments on this collection of
information was published on June 9, 1998 (63 FR 31479). No comments
were received.
Description of the information collection and proposed use: The
Smokeless Tobacco Act, 15 U.S.C. 4401-4408, requires, among other
things, that manufacturers, packagers, and importers of smokeless
tobacco products include health warnings on product packaging and in
advertisements. The Act also requires that each manufacturer, packager,
and importer of smokeless tobacco products submit a plan to the
Commission specifying a method to rotate, display, and distribute the
warning statement required to appear in advertising and labeling. The
Commission is required to determine whether these plans comply with the
act and implementing regulations. All the companies currently affected
by these regulations have previously filed plans, but the plan
submission requirement continues to apply in the event a company amends
its plan, or if a new company enters the market.
Estimate of information collection annual hours burden: 1,000 hours
(rounded). The FTC is reducing the estimated burden for fourteen
smokeless tobacco companies to prepare and submit amended compliance
plans from the current estimate of 2,000 hours to 1,000 hours, rounded
up from 560. Staff believes the reduced estimate is conservative. Prior
burden estimates were based on companies' experience preparing and
filing their initial plans. At this stage, however, all affected
companies have long ago filed their plans with the Commission and staff
does not anticipate that any new company will enter the market.
Additional annual reporting burdens would occur only if already
compliant companies change the way they display the warnings required
by the Smokeless Tobacco Act.
Although it is not possible to predict whether any of these
companies will seek to amend an existing approved plan (and possibly
none will), staff conservatively assumes that each company will file
one amendment per year. This estimate is conservative because, over the
past three years, only one company has voluntarily amended its plan and
the Commission changed the relevant regulations only once. The
voluntary amendment required only 40 hours to prepare, which is
considerably less time than individual companies spend preparing their
initial plans. Commission staff believes it reasonable to assume that
each company would consume approximately that amount of time to prepare
an amended plan. Based on these assumptions, the total annual hours
burden should not exceed 1,000 hours (14 companies x 40 hrs. each,
rounded to the nearest thousand).
Estimate of information collection annual cost burden: $63,000.
Labor costs: The total annualized cost to respondents should not
exceed $63,000. This is based on the assumption that management or
attorneys will account for 80% of the estimates 1,000 hours required to
rewrite or amend the plans, at an hourly rate of $75, and that clerical
support will account for the remaining time (20%) at an hourly rate of
$15. (Management and attorney time: 1,000 hours x .8 = 800 hours x
$75 = $60,000; clerical time: 1,000 hours x .20 = 200 hours x $15 =
$3,000).
Capital or other non-labor costs: None. After the Commission
approves a plan for the display of the warnings required by the
Smokeless Tobacco Act, the companies were required to make additional
submissions to the Commission only if there is a change in the way that
they choose to display the warnings. Once the companies have prepared
plates to print the required warnings on their labels, there are no
additional set-up costs associated with the display of the warnings in
labeling. Similarly, once the companies have prepared acetates of the
required warnings for advertising and promotional materials, there are
no additional set-up costs associated with printing the warnings in
those materials. These set-up costs were incurred before October 1,
1995.
The Commission knows of no annual recordkeeping cost burden
associated with the plans for the display of the warnings. The
companies may keep copies of their plans to ensure that labeling and
advertising complies with the requirements of the Smokeless Tobacco
Act. Such recordkeeping would require the use of office supplies, such
as file folders and papers, all of which the companies should have on
hand in the ordinary course of their business.
Debra A. Valentine,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 98-21889 Filed 8-12-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-M