[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 206 (Thursday, October 25, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60672-60673]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-21067]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


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

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The information collection requirements described below will 
be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (``OMB'') for 
review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Federal Trade 
Commission (``FTC'') is seeking public comments on its proposal to 
extend through November 30, 2010 the current OMB clearance for 
information collection requirements contained in its Prescreen Opt-Out 
Disclosure Rule. That clearance expires on November 30, 2007.

DATES: Comments must be filed by November 26, 2007.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are invited to submit written comments. 
Comments should refer to ``Prescreen Opt-Out Disclosure Rule: FTC File 
No. P075417'' to facilitate the organization of comments. A comment 
filed in paper form should include this reference both in the text and 
on the envelope and should be mailed or delivered, with two complete 
copies, to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Room H 135 
(Annex J), 600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20580. Because 
paper mail in the Washington area and at the Commission is subject to 
delay, please consider submitting your comments in electronic form, as 
prescribed below. However, if the comment contains any material for 
which confidential treatment is requested, it must be filed in paper 
form, and the first page of the document must be clearly labeled 
``Confidential.''\1\ The FTC is requesting that any comment filed in 
paper form be sent by courier or overnight service, if possible.
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    \1\ Commission Rule 4.2(d), 16 CFR 4.2(d). The comment must be 
accompanied by an explicit request for confidential treatment, 
including the factual and legal basis for the request, and must 
identify the specific portions of the comment to be withheld from 
the public record. The request will be granted or denied by the 
Commission's General Counsel, consistent with applicable law and the 
public interest. See Commission Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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    Comments filed in electronic form should be submitted by using the 
following weblink: https://secure.commentworks.com/ftc-PrescreenOpt-Out 
(and following the instructions on the Web-based form). To ensure that 
the Commission considers an electronic comment, you must file it on the 
Web-based form at the weblink: https://secure.commentworks.com/ftc-PrescreenOpt-Out. If this notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov, 
you may also file an electronic comment through that Web site. The 
Commission will consider all comments that http://www.regulations.gov 
forwards to it.
    All comments should additionally be submitted to: Office of 
Management and Budget, Attention: Desk Officer for the Federal Trade 
Commission. Comments should be submitted via facsimile to (202) 395-
6974 because U.S. Postal Mail is subject to lengthy delays due to 
heightened security precautions.
    The FTC Act and other laws the Commission administers permit the 
collection of public comments to consider and use in this proceeding as 
appropriate. All timely and responsive public comments will be 
considered by the Commission and will be available to the public on the 
FTC website, to the extent practicable, at http://www.ftc.gov. As a 
matter of discretion, the FTC makes every effort to remove home contact 
information for individuals from the public comments it receives before 
placing those comments on the FTC website. More information, including 
routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, may be found in the FTC's 
privacy policy at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information 
should be addressed to Katherine Armstrong, Attorney, Division of 
Privacy and Identity Protection, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal 
Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20580, 
(202) 326-3250.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act (``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 1, 
2007, the FTC sought comment on the information collection requirements 
associated with the FTC's Prescreen Opt-Out Disclosure Rule 
(``Prescreen Rule'' or ``Rule), 16 CFR Part 642.\2\ 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 Prescreen Rule. All comments should be filed as 
prescribed in the ADDRESSES section above, and must be received on or 
before November 26, 2007.
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    \2\ 72 FR 42091 (Aug. 1, 2007).

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[[Page 60673]]

    Section 615(d) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (``FCRA''), 15 
U.S.C. 1681m(d)(1), requires any person who uses a consumer report in 
order to make an unsolicited firm offer of credit or insurance to a 
consumer to provide with each written solicitation a clear and 
conspicuous statement that:
     (A) information contained in the consumer's consumer report was 
used in connection with the transaction; (B) the consumer received the 
offer of credit or insurance because the consumer satisfied the 
criteria for credit worthiness or insurability under which the consumer 
was selected for the offer; (C) if applicable, the credit or insurance 
may not be extended if, after the consumer responds to the offer, the 
consumer does not meet the criteria used to select the consumer for the 
offer or any applicable criteria bearing on credit worthiness or 
insurability or does not furnish any required collateral; (D) the 
consumer has a right to prohibit information contained in the 
consumer's file with any consumer reporting agency from being used in 
connection with any credit or insurance transaction that is not 
initiated by the consumer; and (E) the consumer may exercise the right 
referred to in subparagraph (D) by notifying a notification system 
established under section 604(e) [of the FCRA].
    Section 615(d)(1) of the FCRA, 15 U.S.C. 1681m(d)(1).
    The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, Pub. L. 108-
159, 117 Stat. 1952 (``FACT Act'') was signed into law on December 4, 
2003. Section 213(a) of the FACT Act amended FCRA Section 615(d) to 
require that the statement mandated by Section 615(d) ``be presented in 
such format and in such type size and manner as to be simple and easy 
to understand, as established by the Commission, by rule, in 
consultation with the Federal banking agencies and the National Credit 
Union Administration.'' The Commission published the Final Rule 
implementing this provision in the Federal Register on January 31, 
2005, and the Rule became effective on August 1, 2005.
    The Rule adopted a ``layered'' notice approach that requires a 
short, simple, and easy-to-understand statement of consumers' opt-out 
rights on the first page of the prescreened solicitation, along with a 
longer statement containing additional details elsewhere in the 
solicitation. Specifically, the Rule requires that a short notice be 
placed on the front side of the first page of the principal promotional 
document in the solicitation, or, if provided electronically, on the 
same page and in close proximity to the principal marketing message. 
The Rule specifies that the type size be larger than the type size of 
the principal text on the same page, but in no event smaller than 12-
point type. If the notice is provided by electronic means, the entity 
providing it must take reasonable steps to ensure that the type size is 
larger than the type size of the principal text on the same page. The 
Rule further provides that the long notice that appears elsewhere in 
the solicitation be in a type size that is no smaller than the type 
size of the principal text on the same page, but in no event smaller 
than 8-point type. The long notice must begin with the heading 
``PRESCREEN & OPT-OUT NOTICE,'' which must be in capital letters and 
underlined, set apart from other text on the page, and in a type style 
that is distinct from the principal type style used on the same page. 
The Rule also includes model notices in English and Spanish.

Burden statement:

    Estimated total annual hours burden: 1,000 to 1,500 hours (rounded 
to the nearest thousand).
    Based on public comments received in response to the Commission's 
2004 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking,\3\ when issuing the final Rule, the 
Commission estimated that the annual burden to industry would be 
between 43,600 and 45,600 hours.\4\ This estimate was comprised of 500 
to 750 companies each spending 8 hours to revise an existing 
solicitation, plus 100 companies each needing an additional 396 hours 
to revise multiple solicitations ((500 companies x 8 burden hours + 
39,600 burden hours = 43,600 burden hours); (750 companies x 8 burden 
hours + 39,600 burden hours = 45,600 burden hours)).\5\ The Commission 
further estimated that the total annual cost to industry would be 
between $1,157,894 and $1,213,329.\6\
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    \3\ 69 FR 58861 (Oct. 1, 2004).
    \4\ 70 FR 5022 (Jan. 31, 2005).
    \5\ The Commission estimated that each of the 100 companies 
would revise 99 additional solicitations and incur 4 hours of burden 
per solicitation (100 companies x 99 solicitations x 4 hours of 
burden = 39,600 burden hours).
    \6\ This estimate was based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data 
(as of July, 2002), as follows: 2 hours of managerial/professional 
time at $31.55 per hour; plus 6 hours of skilled technical labor at 
$26.44 per hour; multiplied by 500 and 750 companies, for a total of 
$110,870 and $166,305, respectively. These sums were added to 
$1,047,024 (39,600 hours of skilled technical labor at $26.44 per 
hour) for revising multiple solicitations.
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    The requirements of the Rule have not changed since OMB's 2004 
approval of the final Rule. The previous estimates included a one-time 
burden to reprogram and update systems to revise existing notices and 
to re-format solicitations to comply with the Rule. Because the Rule 
has been in effect since August 1, 2005, covered entities have already 
incurred the one-time costs of transitioning to compliant notice 
formats. Accordingly, the annual PRA-related burden associated with the 
Rule is now reduced. FTC staff believes that the primary cost of 
continuing to comply with the Rule is limited to any legal review each 
entity determines is necessary to remain in compliance.
    FTC staff continues to estimate that between 500 and 750 entities 
make prescreened solicitations. Because no additional revision or 
reformatting is necessary, however, staff has lowered the estimate of 
the burden hours to approximately 2 hours (one quarter of one business 
day), rather than the estimated 8 hours that was the estimate to revise 
and reformat solicitations when the Rule was promulgated. Accordingly, 
the total annual burden is between 1,000 and 1,500 hours (500 to 750 
entities x 2 hours of annual burden). FTC staff assumes that in-house 
legal counsel will handle most of the compliance review and has applied 
an average hourly wage of $250/hour for their labor. Accordingly, the 
total cost for all affected entities would be between $250,000 and 
$375,000 (1000 to 1,500 burden hours x $250 per hour of legal review 
time).

John D. Graubert,
Acting General Counsel.
[FR Doc. E7-21067 Filed 10-24-07: 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-S