[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 220 (Thursday, November 13, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67174-67175]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-26882]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


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

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (``Commission'' or ``FTC'').

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 (``PRA''). The FTC 
is seeking public comments on its proposal to extend through January 
31, 2012, the current PRA clearance for information sought through 
compulsory process orders to a combined ten or more of the largest 
cigarette manufacturers and smokeless tobacco manufacturers in order to 
obtain from them information including, among other things, their sales 
and marketing expenditures. The current clearance expires on January 
31, 2009.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before December 15, 2008.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are invited to submit written comments 
electronically or in paper form. Comments should refer to ``Tobacco 
Reports: Paperwork Comment, FTC File No. P054507'' to facilitate the 
organization of comments. Please note that comments will be placed on 
the public record of this proceeding--including on the publicly 
accessible FTC website, at (http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm) 
-- and therefore should not include any sensitive or confidential 
information. In particular, comments should not include any sensitive 
personal information, such as an individual's Social Security Number; 
date of birth; driver's license number or other state identification 
number, or foreign country equivalent; passport number; financial 
account number; or credit or debit card number. Comments also should 
not include any sensitive health information, such as medical records 
or other individually identifiable health information. In addition, 
comments should not include any ``[t]rade secrets and commercial or 
financial information obtained from a person and privileged or 
confidential. . . .,'' as provided in Section 6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 
U.S.C. 46(f), and Commission Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR 4.10(a)(2). 
Comments containing material for which confidential treatment is 
requested must be filed in paper form, must be clearly labeled 
``Confidential,'' and must comply with FTC Rule 4.9(c).\1\
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    \1\ FTC 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 FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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    Because paper mail addressed to the FTC is subject to delay due to 
heightened security screening, please consider submitting your comments 
in electronic form. Comments filed in electronic form should be 
submitted by using the following weblink: (https://secure.commentworks.com/ftc-TobaccoReports) (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-TobaccoReports). If 
this Notice appears at (http://www.regulations.gov/search/index.jsp), 
you may also file an electronic comment through that website. The 
Commission will consider all comments that regulations.gov forwards to 
it.
    A comment filed in paper form should include the ``Tobacco Reports: 
Paperwork Comment, FTC File No. P054507'' reference both in the text 
and on the envelope, and should be mailed or delivered to the following 
address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Room H-135 
(Annex J), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20580. The FTC 
is requesting that any comment filed in paper form be sent by courier 
or overnight service, if possible, because U.S. postal mail in the 
Washington area and at the Commission is subject to delay due to 
heightened security precautions.
    All comments should additionally be submitted to: Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs of OMB, 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. The Commission will consider all timely and responsive 
public comments that it receives, whether filed in paper or electronic 
form. Comments received will be available to the public on the FTC 
website, to the extent practicable, at (http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm). As a matter of discretion, the Commission 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.shtm).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the proposed collection requirements should be addressed to 
Shira Modell, Attorney, Division of Advertising Practices, Bureau of 
Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, 
N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580; telephone: (202) 326-3116.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: For forty years, the Federal Trade 
Commission has published periodic reports containing data on domestic 
cigarette sales and marketing expenditures by the major U.S. cigarette 
manufacturers. The Commission has published comparable reports on 
smokeless tobacco sales and marketing expenditures since 1987. Both 
reports originally were issued pursuant to statutory mandates. After 
those statutory mandates were terminated, the Commission continued to 
collect and publish information obtained from the cigarette and 
smokeless tobacco industries pursuant to Section 6(b) of the FTC Act, 
15 U.S.C. 46(b). The current PRA clearance to collect this information 
is valid through January 31, 2009, under OMB Control No. 3084-0134.
    The FTC plans to continue sending information requests annually to 
the ultimate parent company of several of the largest cigarette 
companies and smokeless tobacco companies in the United States 
(``industry members''). The information requests will seek data 
regarding, inter alia: (1) the tobacco sales of industry members; (2) 
how much industry members spend advertising and promoting their tobacco 
products, and the specific amounts

[[Page 67175]]

spent in each of several specified expenditure categories; (3) whether 
industry members are involved in the appearance of their tobacco 
products in television shows or movies; (4) how much industry members 
spend on advertising intended to reduce youth tobacco usage; (5) the 
events, if any, during which industry members' tobacco brands are 
televised; and (6) for the cigarette industry, the tar, nicotine, and 
carbon monoxide ratings of their cigarettes, to the extent they possess 
such data. The information will again be sought using compulsory 
process under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act.
    On August 7, 2008, the FTC sought public comment on its proposed 
information collection requests to the major cigarette and smokeless 
tobacco manufacturers. 73 FR 46006. One comment was received, which is 
discussed below.\2\ 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 information collection requests. All 
comments should be filed as prescribed in the ADDRESSES section above, 
and must be received on or before December 15, 2008.
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    \2\ That comment is available at http://www.ftc.gov/os/comments/tobaccoreportspra/index.shtm.
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Comment Received:

    Altria Client Services Inc. filed a comment on behalf of Philip 
Morris USA Inc. (``PM USA''), in which it stated that PM USA believes 
the FTC's authority to collect the proposed information ``should be 
extended given the important role that the FTC has played and should 
continue to play relative to these products.'' The comment then 
referenced a separate Commission matter, noting that if the FTC were to 
rescind its guidance that factual statements of cigarette tar and 
nicotine yields based on the Cambridge Filter Method generally do not 
violate the FTC Act,\3\ PM USA would question the Commission's need to 
continue collecting such information.
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    \3\ On July 14, 2008, the Commission published a Federal 
Register notice seeking comment on a proposal to rescind its 
guidance, issued in 1966, that it is generally not a violation of 
the FTC Act to make factual statements of the tar and nicotine 
yields of cigarettes when statements of such yields are supported by 
testing conducted pursuant to the Cambridge Filter Method. 73 FR 
40,351.
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    The matter referred to by PM USA is still being considered by the 
Commission. If the 1966 guidance is rescinded, the Commission will 
decide whether to continue collecting tar, nicotine, and carbon 
monoxide yield data to the extent the companies possess them.

Estimated annual hours burden:

    The FTC staff's estimate of the hours burden is based on the time 
required to respond to each information request. Although the FTC 
currently anticipates sending information requests to the six largest 
cigarette companies and the five largest smokeless tobacco companies in 
2009,\4\ the burden estimate is based on up to 15 information requests 
being issued per year to take into account any future changes in these 
industries. These companies vary greatly in size, in the number of 
products that they sell, and in the extent and variety of their 
advertising and promotion. Prior input received from the industries, 
combined with staff's knowledge of them, suggests that the time most 
companies would require to gather, organize, format, and produce their 
responses would range from 30 to 80 hours per information request for 
the smaller companies, to as much as hundreds of hours for the very 
largest companies. As an approximation, staff continues to assume a per 
company average of 180 hours for the ten largest recipients of the 
Commission's information request to comply with it; cumulatively, 1,800 
hours per year.\5\ Staff further estimates that for the eleventh 
recipient of the information request to be issued in 2009 and the four 
possible additional recipients, all of which would be smaller companies 
than the initial ten recipients, the burden should not exceed 60 hours 
per company or 300 hours, cumulatively. Thus, the overall estimated 
burden for a maximum of 15 recipients of the information request is 
2,100 hours. These estimates include any time spent by separately 
incorporated subsidiaries and other entities affiliated with the 
ultimate parent company that has received the information request.
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    \4\ In August 2008, the Commission issued information requests 
to six cigarette companies and five smokeless tobacco companies. The 
Commission anticipates that it will issue requests to the same 
number of companies in 2009.
    \5\ 70 FR 24415 (May 9, 2005); 70 FR 62313 (Oct. 31, 2005).
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    Estimated cost burden:
    It is not possible to calculate with precision the labor costs 
associated with this data production, as they entail varying 
compensation levels of management and/or support staff among companies 
of different sizes. Financial, legal, marketing, and clerical personnel 
may be involved in the information collection process. Commission staff 
assumes that professional personnel will handle most of the tasks 
involved in gathering and producing responsive information, and have 
applied an average hourly wage of $150/hour for their combined labor. 
Staff's best estimate for the total labor costs for up to 15 
information requests is $315,000. Staff believes that the capital or 
other non-labor costs associated with the information requests are 
minimal. Although the information requests may necessitate that 
industry members maintain the requested information provided to the 
Commission, they should already have in place the means to compile and 
maintain business records.

William Blumenthal,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. E8-26882 Filed 11-12-08: 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-S