[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 161 (Tuesday, August 20, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53933-53936]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-21116]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The FTC is seeking public comments on its proposal to extend 
through December 31, 2005, the current Paperwork Reduction Act 
(``PRA'') clearance for information collection requirements contained 
in four product labeling rules enforced by the Commission. That 
clearance expires on December 31, 2002.

DATES: Comments must be filed by October 21, 2002.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Secretary, Federal Trade 
Commission, Room H-159, 600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 
20580. All comments should be captioned ``Apparel Rules: Paperwork 
Comment.'' Comments in electronic form should be sent to 
[email protected] as prescribed below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the proposed information requirements should be sent to Gary 
Greenfield, Attorney, Office of the General Counsel, Federal Trade 
Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., H-576, Washington, DC 20580, 
(202) 326-2753.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies

[[Page 53934]]

must obtain approval from OMB for each collection of information they 
conduct or sponsor. ``Collection of information'' means agency requests 
for requirements that members of the public submit reports, keep 
records, or provide information to a third party. 44 U.S.C. 3502(3), 5 
CFR 1320(3), 5 CFR 1320.3(c). As required by section 3506(c)(2)(A) of 
the PRA, the FTC is providing this opportunity for public comment 
before requesting that OMB extend the existing paperwork clearance for 
the regulations noted herein.
    The FTC invites comments on: (1) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information will have practical 
utility; (2) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used; (3) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (4) ways 
to minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who 
are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic 
submission of responses.
    If a comment contains nonpublic information, it must be filed in 
paper form, and the first page of the document must be clearly labeled 
``confidential.'' Comments that do not contain any nonpublic 
information may instead be filed in electronic form (in ASCII format, 
WordPerfect, or Microsoft Word) as part of or as an attachment to e-
mail message directed to the following e-mail box: 
[email protected]. Such comments will be considered by the 
Commission and will be available for inspection and copying at its 
principal office in accordance with section 4.9(b)(6)(ii) of the 
Commission's Rules of Practice, 16 CFR section 4.9(b)(6)(ii).
    Staff's burden estimates for the four rules in question are based 
on data from the Bureau of the Census, U.S. Customs and International 
Trade Commission, the Department of Labor, and data or other input from 
industry sources. The relevant information collection requirements 
within these rules and corresponding burden estimates follow.

1. Regulations Under the Fur Products Labelling Act, 15 U.S.C. 69 et 
seq. (``Fur Act'') (Control Number: 3084-0099)

    The Fur Act prohibits misbranding and false advertising of fur 
products. The Fur Act Regulations, 16 CFR 301, establish disclosure 
requirements that assist consumers in making informed purchasing 
decisions, and recordkeeping requirements that assist the Commission in 
enforcing these regulations. The Regulations also provide a procedure 
for exemption from certain disclosure provisions under the Act.
    Estimated annual hours burden: 177,000 hours, rounded to the 
nearest thousand (62,400 hours for recordkeeping + 114,450 hours for 
disclosure).
    Recordkeeping: The Regulations require that retailers, 
manufacturers and processors, and importers keep certain records in 
addition to those they may keep in the ordinary course of business. 
Staff estimates that 1,500 retailers incur an average recordkeeping 
burden of about 13 hours per year (19,500 hours total); 225 
manufacturers and fur processors combined incur an average 
recordkeeping burden of about 52 hours per year (11,700 total); and 
1,200 importers of furs and fur products incur an average recordkeeping 
burden of 26 hours per year (31,200 hours total). The combined 
recordkeeping burden for the industry is approximately 62,400 hours 
annually.
    Disclosure: Staff estimates that 1,710 respondents (210 
manufacturers + 1,500 retail sellers of fur garments) each require an 
average of 20 hours per year to determine label content (34,200 hours 
total), and an average of five hours per year to draft and order labels 
(8,550 hours total). Staff estimates that manually attaching a label to 
an estimated 1,620,000 fur garments requires approximately two minutes 
per garment for a total of 54,000 hours annually. Thus, the total 
burden for labeling garments is 96,750 hours per year.
    Staff estimates that the incremental burden associated with the 
Regulations' invoice disclosure requirement, beyond the time that would 
be devoted to preparing invoices in its absence, is approximately 30 
seconds per invoice.\1\ The invoice disclosure requirement applies to 
fur garments, which are generally sold individually, and fur pelts, 
which are generally sold in groups of at least 50, on average. Assuming 
invoices are prepared for sales of 1,620,000 garments and 160,000 
groups (an estimated 8 million pelts / 50) each of imported 
and domestic pelts, the invoice disclosure requirement entails an 
estimated total burden of 16,167 hours.
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    \1\ The invoice disclosure burden for PRA purposes excludes the 
time the respondents would spend for invoicing, apart from the Fur 
Act Regulations, in the ordinary course of business, See 5 CFR 
1320.3(b)(2).
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    Staff estimates that the Regulations' advertising disclosure 
requirements impose an average burden of one hour per year for each of 
the approximately 1,500 domestic fur retailers, or a total of 1,500 
hours.
    Thus, staff estimates the total disclosure burden to be 
approximately 114,450 hours (96,750 hours for labeling + 16,167 hours 
for invoices + 1,500 hours for advertising).
    Estimated annual cost burden: $2,303,000, rounded to the nearest 
thousand (solely relating to labor costs).

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                              Task                                  Hourly rate    Burden hours     Labor cost
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Determine label content.........................................          $20.00          34,200        $684,000
Draft and order labels..........................................           13.00           8,550         111,150
Attach labels...................................................          2 8.50          54,000         459,000
Invoice disclosures.............................................           13.00          16,167         210,171
Prepare advertising disclosures.................................           18.00           1,500          27,000
Recordkeeping...................................................           13.00          62,400         811,200
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    Total.......................................................  ..............  ..............       2,302,521
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    Staff believes that there are no current start-up costs or other 
capital costs associated with the Regulations. Because the labeling of 
fur products has been in integral part of the manufacturing process for 
decades,

[[Page 53935]]

manufacturers have in place the capital equipment necessary to comply 
with the Regulations' labeling requirements. Industry sources indicate 
that much of the information required by the Fur Act and its 
implementing Regulations would be included on the product label even 
absent the regulations. Similarly, invoicing, recordkeeping, and 
advertising disclosures are tasks performed in the ordinary course of 
business so that covered firms would incur no additional capital or 
other non-labor costs as a result of the Act or the Regulations.
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    \2\ Per industry sources, most fur labeling is done in the U.S., 
and this rate is reflective of an average domestic hourly wage for 
such tasks. Conversely, attaching labels with regard to the other 
regulations discussed herein is mostly performed by foreign labor, 
as detailed in note 3.
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2. Regulations Under the Wool Products Labeling Act, 15 U.S.C. 68 et 
seq. (``Wool Act'') (Control Number: 3084-0100)

    The Wool Act prohibits misbranding of wool products. The Wool Act 
Regulations, 16 CFR 300, establish disclosure requirements that assist 
consumers in making informed purchasing decisions and recordkeeping 
requirements that assist the Commission in enforcing the Regulations.
    Estimated annual hours burden: 556,000 hours, rounded to the 
nearest thousand (125,000 recordkeeping hours + 430,556 disclosure 
hours).
    Recordkeeping: Staff estimates that approximately 5,000 wool firms 
are subject to the Regulations' recordkeeping requirements. Based on an 
average annual burden of 25 hours per firm, the total recordkeeping 
burden is 125,000 hours.
    Disclosure: Approximately 10,000 wool firms, producing or importing 
about 500,000,000 wool products annually, are subject to the 
Regulations' disclosure requirements. Staff estimates the burden of 
determining label content to be 20 hours per year per respondent, or a 
total of 200,000 hours, and the burden of drafting and ordering labels 
to be 5 hours per respondent per year, or a total of 50,000 hours. 
Staff believes that the process of attaching labels is now fully 
automated and integrated into other production steps for about 35 
percent of all affected products. For the remaining 325,000,000 items 
(65 percent of 500,000,000), the process is semi-automated and requires 
an average of approximately two seconds per item, for a total of 
180,556 hours per year. Thus, the total estimated annul burden for all 
respondents is 430,556 hours. Staff believes that any additional burden 
associated with advertising disclosure requirements would be minimal 
(less than 10,000 hours) and can be subsumed within the burden 
estimates set forth above.
    Estimated annual cost burden: $6,817,000, rounded to the nearest 
thousand (solely relating to labor costs).

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                              Task                                  Hourly rate    Burden hours     Labor cost
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Determine label content.........................................          $20.00         200,000      $4,000,000
Draft and order labels..........................................           13.00          50,000         650,000
Attach labels...................................................         \3\3.00         180,556        $541,668
Recordkeeping...................................................           13.00         125,000       1,625,000
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      Total.....................................................  ..............  ..............       6,816,668
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    Staff believes that there are no current start-up costs or other 
capital costs associated with the Regulations. Because the labeling of 
wool products has been an integral part of the manufacturing process 
for decades, manufacturers have in place the capital equipment 
necessary to comply with the Regulations. Based on knowledge of the 
industry, staff believes that much of the information required by the 
Wool Act and its implementing regulations would be included on the 
product label even absent their requirements. Similarly, recordkeeping 
and advertising disclosures are tasks performed in the ordinary course 
of business so that covered firms would incur no additional capital or 
other non-labor costs as a result of the Regulations.
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    \3\ For products that are imported, this work generally is done 
in the country where they are manufactured. According to information 
compiled by an industry trade association using data from the 
International Trade Commission, the U.S. Customs Service, and the 
U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 90% of apparel and other textile 
products used in the United States is imported. With the remaining 
10% attributable to U.S. production at an approximate domestic 
hourly wage of $8.50 to attach labels, staff has calculated a 
weighted average hourly wage of $3 per hour attributable to U.S. and 
foreign labor combined. The estimated percentage of imports supplied 
by particular countries is based on trade data for 2001 compiled by 
the Office of Textiles and Apparel, International Trade 
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. Wages in major textile 
exporting countries, factored into the above hourly wage estimate, 
were based on data published in February 2000 by the U.S. Department 
of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs. (See ``Wages, 
Benefits, Poverty Line, and Meeting Workers' Needs in the Apparel 
and Footwear Industries of Selected Countries,'' Table I-2: 
``Prevailing or Average Wages in the Manufacturing Sector and in the 
Footwear and Apparel Industries in Selected Countries, Latest 
Available Year'').
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3. Regulations Under the Textile Fiber Products Identification Act, 15 
U.S.C. 70 et seq. (``Textile Act'') (Control Number: 3084-0101)

    The Textile Act prohibits misbranding and false advertising of 
textile fiber products. The Textile Act Regulations, 16 CFR 303, 
establish disclosure requirements that assist consumers in making 
informed purchasing decisions, and recordkeeping requirements that 
assist the Commission in enforcing the regulations. The Regulations 
also contain a petition procedure for requesting the establishment of 
generic names for textile fibers.
    Estimated annual hours burden: Approximately 7,547,000 hours, 
rounded to the nearest thousand (537,500 recordkeeping hours +7,009,722 
disclosure hours).
    Recordkeeping: Staff estimates that approximately 21,500 textile 
firms are subject to the Textile Regulations' recordkeeping 
requirements. Based on an average burden of 25 hours per firm, the 
total recordkeeping burden is 537,500 hours.
    Disclosure: Approximately 31,500 textile firms, producing or 
importing about 17.2 billion textile fiber products annually, are 
subject to the Regulations' disclosure requirements.\4\ Staff estimates 
the burden of determining label content to be 20 hours per year per 
respondent, or a total of 630,000 hours and the burden of drafting and 
ordering labels to be 5 hours per respondent per year, or a total of 
157,500 hours. Staff believes that the process of attaching labels is 
now fully automated and integrated into other production steps

[[Page 53936]]

for about 35 percent of all affected products. For the remaining 11.2 
billion items (65 percent of 17.2 billion), the process is semi-
automated and requires an average of approximately two seconds per 
item, for a total of 6,222,222 hours per year. Thus, the total 
estimated annual burden for all respondents is 7,009,722 hours. Staff 
believes that any additional burden associated with advertising 
disclosure requirements or the filing of generic fiber name petitions 
would be minimal (less than 10,000 hours) and can be subsumed within 
the burden estimates set forth above.
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    \4\ The apparent consumption of garments in the U.S. in 2001 was 
15.2 billion. Staff estimates that .5 billion garments are exempt 
from the Textile Act (i.e., any kind of headwear and garments made 
from something other than a textile fiber product, such as leather) 
or are subject to a special exemption for hosiery products sold in 
packages where the label information is contained on the package. 
Based on available data, staff estimates that an additional 3 
billion household textile products (non-garments, such as sheets, 
towels, blankets) were consumed. However, approximately .5 billion 
of all of these combined products (garments and non-garments) are 
subject to the Wool Products Labeling Act, not the Textile Fiber 
Products Identification Act, because they contain some amount of 
wool. Thus, the estimated net total products subject to the Textile 
Fiber Products Identification Act is 17.2 billion.
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    Estimated annual cost burden: $40,302,000, rounded to the nearest 
thousand (solely relating to labor costs).

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                              Task                                  Hourly rate    Burden hours     Labor cost
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Determine label content.........................................          $20.00         630,000     $12,600,000
Draft and order labels..........................................           13.00         157,500       2,047,500
Attach labels...................................................        \5\ 3.00       6,222,222      18,666,666
Recordkeeping...................................................           13.00         537,500       6,987,500
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    Total.......................................................  ..............  ..............      40,301,666
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    Staff believes that there are no current start-up costs or other 
capital costs associated with the Regulations. Because the labeling of 
textile products has been an integral part of the manufacturing process 
for decades, manufacturers have in place the capital equipment 
necessary to comply with the Regulations' labeling requirements. 
Industry sources indicate that much of the information required by the 
Textile Act and its implementing rules would be included on the product 
label even absent their requirements. Similarly, recordkeeping, 
invoicing, and advertising disclosures are tasks performed in the 
ordinary course of business so that covered firms would incur no 
additional capital or other non-labor costs as a result of the 
Regulations.
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    \5\ See note 3.
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4. The Care Labeling Rule, 16 CFR Part 423 (Control Number: 3094-0103)

    The Care Labeling Rule, 16 CFR Part 423, requires manufacturers and 
importers to attach a permanent care label to all covered textile 
clothing in order to assist consumers in making purchase decisions and 
in determining what method to use to clean their apparel. Also, 
manufacturers and importers of piece goods used to make textile 
clothing must provide the same care information on the end of each bolt 
or roll of fabric.
    Estimated annual hours burden: 6,054,000 hours, rounded to the 
nearest thousand (solely relating to disclosure.\6\)
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    \6\ The Care Labeling Rule imposes no specific recordkeeping 
requirements. Although the Rule requires manufacturers and importers 
to have reliable evidence to support the recommended care 
instructions, companies may provide as support current technical 
literature or rely on past experience.
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    Staff estimates that approximately 16,500 manufacturers or 
importers of textile apparel, producing about 15.2 billion textile 
garments annually, are subject to the Rule's disclosure requirements. 
The burden of developing proper care instructions may vary greatly 
among firms, primarily based on the number of different lines of 
textile garments introduced per year that require new or revised care 
instructions. Staff estimates the burden of determining care 
instructions to be 43 hours each year per respondent, for a cumulative 
total of 709,500 hours. Staff further estimates that the burden of 
drafting and ordering labels is 2 hours each year per respondent, for a 
total of 33,000 hours. Staff believes that the process of attaching 
labels is fully automated and integrated into other production steps 
for about 35 percent of the approximately 14.7 billion garments that 
are required to have care instructions on permanent labels.\7\ For the 
remaining 9.56 billion items (65 percent of 14.7 billion), the process 
is semi-automated and requires an average of approximately two seconds 
per item, for a total of 5,311,100 hours per year. Thus, the total 
estimated annual burden for all respondents is 6,053,600 hours.
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    \7\ About .5 billion of the 15.2 billion garments produced 
annually are either not covered by the Care Labeling Rule (gloves, 
hats, caps, and leather, fur, plastic, or leather garments) or are 
subject to an exemption that allows care instructions to appear on 
packaging (hosiery).
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    Estimated annual cost burden: $30,552,000, rounded to the nearest 
thousand (solely relating to labor costs).

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                                        Hourly     Burden
                 Task                    rate      hours      Labor cost
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Determine care instructions..........   $20.00      709,500  $14,190,000
Draft and order labels...............    13.00        33,00      429,000
Attach labels........................  \8\ 3.0    5,311,100   15,933,300
                                             0
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      Total..........................  .......  ...........   30,552,300
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    Staff believes that there are no current start-up costs or other 
capital costs associated with the Rule. Because the labeling of textile 
products has been an integral part of the manufacturing process for 
decades, manufacturers have in place the capital equipment necessary to 
comply with the Rule's labeling requirements. Based on knowledge of the 
industry, staff believes that much of the information required by the 
Rule would be included on the product label even absent those 
requirements.
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    \8\ See note 3.

William E. Kovacic,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 02-21116 Filed 8-19-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-M