[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