[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 215 (Wednesday, November 6, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67625-67628]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-28160]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB 
Review; Comment Request

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The FTC has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) for review under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) information 
collection requirements contained in four product labeling rules 
enforced by the Commission. The FTC is seeking public comments on the 
proposal to extend through December 31, 2005 the current PRA clearance 
for information collection requirements contained in the regulations. 
That clearance expires on December 31, 2002.

DATES: Comments must be filed by December 6, 2002.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to the Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, New Executive 
Office Building, Room 10202, Washington, DC 20503, ATTN.: Desk Office 
for the Federal Trade Commission (comments in electronic form should be 
sent to [email protected]), and to Secretary, Federal Trade 
Commission, Room H-159, 600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 
20580 (comments in electronic form should be sent to 
[email protected] as prescribed below). All comments should be 
captioned ``Apparel Rules: Paperwork Comment.''

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 PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal 
agencies must obtain approval from OMB for each collection of 
information they conduct or sponsor. On August 20, 2002, the FTC sought 
comment on the information collection requirements associated with 
these product labeling rules. See 67 FR 53933. No comments were 
received. Pursuant to the OMB regulations that implement the PRA (5 CFR 
part 1320), the FTC is providing this second opportunity for public 
comment while seeking OMB approval to extend the existing paperwork 
clearance for the Rule.
    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 email 
messages directed to the following email 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 Sec.  4.9(b)(6)(ii) of the Commission's rules of 
practice, 16 CFR 4.9(b)(6)(ii)).
    Staff's burden estimates for the four rules in question are based 
on data from the Bureau of 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 Labeling 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, manufactures 
and processors, and imports 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 increment 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
    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.
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    \1\ The invoice disclosure burden for PRA purposes excludes the 
time that 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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    Thus, staff estimates the total disclosure burden to be 
approximately 114,450 hours (96,750 hours for labeling + 16,167 hours 
for invoice + 1,500 hours for advertising.
    Estimated annual cost burden: $2,303,000 rounded to the nearest 
thousand (solely relating to labor costs).

[[Page 67626]]



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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           8,500         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 \2\ 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 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 
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 others 
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 part 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 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 total of 180,556 hours per 
year. Thus, the total estimated annual 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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\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'').

    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.

[[Page 67627]]

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 part 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 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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\5\ See note 3.

    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.

4. The Care Labeling Rule, 16 CFR Part 423 (Control Number: 3084-0103)

    The Care Labeling Rule, 16 CFR part 423, requires manufacturers and 
importers to attach 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 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, 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).

[[Page 67628]]



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                              Task                                  Hourly rate    Burden hours     Labor cost
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Determine care instructions.....................................          $20.00         709,500     $14,190,000
Draft and order labels..........................................           13.00          33,000         429,000
Attach labels...................................................          8 3.00       5,311,100      15,933,300
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    Total.......................................................  ..............  ..............      30,552,300
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    Staff \8\ 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.

John D. Graubert,
Acting General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 02-28160 Filed 11-5-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-M