[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 227 (Friday, November 25, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 72706-72707]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-30344]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


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

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

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The FTC intends to ask the Office of Management and Budget 
(``OMB'') to extend through January 31, 2015, the current Paperwork 
Reduction Act (``PRA'') clearance for information the FTC would seek 
from a combined ten or more of the largest cigarette manufacturers and 
smokeless tobacco manufacturers. The current clearance expires on 
January 31, 2012.

DATES: Comments on the proposed information requests must be received 
on or before December 27, 2011.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment online or on paper, by 
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write: ``Tobacco Reports: 
Paperwork Comment, FTC File No. P054507'' on your comment, and file 
your comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/tobaccoreportspra2 by following the instructions on the web-based form. 
If you prefer to file your comment on paper, mail or deliver your 
comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of 
the Secretary, Room H-113 (Annex J), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, 
Washington, DC 20580.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the proposed collection of information should be addressed to 
Shira Modell, Division of Advertising Practices, Bureau of Consumer 
Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., NJ-
3212, Washington, DC 20580. Telephone: (202) 326-3116.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: FTC Cigarette and Smokeless Tobacco Data Collection.
    OMB Control Number: 3084-0134.
    Type of Review: Extension of currently approved collection.
    Abstract: For more than forty years, the FTC has published periodic 
reports containing data on domestic cigarette sales and marketing 
expenditures by the major U.S. cigarette manufacturers. It has 
published comparable reports on smokeless tobacco sales and marketing 
expenditures for more than twenty years. Both reports originally were 
issued pursuant to statutory mandates. After those statutory mandates 
ended, the Commission continued to collect and publish information 
obtained from the cigarette and smokeless tobacco industries through 
compulsory process under the authority of Section 6(b) of the FTC Act, 
15 U.S.C. 46(b).
    The FTC plans to continue sending information requests annually to 
the ultimate parent company of several of the largest U.S. cigarette c 
and smokeless tobacco companies (``industry members''). The information 
requests will seek data regarding, among other things: (1) The tobacco 
sales of industry members; (2) how much industry members spend 
advertising and promoting their tobacco products, and the amounts spent 
in each of several specified expenditure categories; (3) whether 
industry members are involved in the appearance of their products or 
brand imagery in television shows, motion pictures, or the Internet; 
(4) how much industry members spend on advertising intended to reduce 
youth tobacco use; (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.\1\ The information 
will again be sought under the authority of Section 6(b) of the FTC 
Act.
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    \1\ Although the Commission has rescinded the 1966 enforcement 
policy that allowed factual statements of tar and nicotine yields 
supported by testing conducted under what was commonly referred to 
as ``the FTC Test Method,'' 73 FR 74500 (Dec. 8, 2008), the 
Commission believes it is important to continue collecting these 
data, which researchers and policymakers use to track trends over 
time.
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    On August 4, 2011, the FTC sought public comment on its proposed 
information collection requests to the major cigarette and smokeless 
tobacco manufacturers. 76 FR 47187. No comments were received. Pursuant 
to the OMB regulations, 5 CFR part 1320, that implement the PRA, 44 
U.S.C. 3501 et seq., the FTC is providing a second opportunity for the 
public to comment while seeking OMB approval to extend the existing 
paperwork clearance for the information collection requests.

Burden Statement \2\

Estimated Number of Respondents, Estimated Average Burden per year per 
Respondent

    (a) Information requests to the five largest cigarette companies 
and five largest smokeless tobacco companies, at a per company average 
each year of 180 hours = 1,800 hours, cumulatively, per year; and
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    \2\ See 76 FR 47187 for further details underlying the estimates 
that follow.
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    (b) Information requests to a five additional respondents, of 
smaller size, at a per company average each year of 60 hours = 300 
hours, cumulatively, per year.
    Thus, the overall estimated burden for an assumed maximum of 15 
recipients of the information requests is 2,100 hours per year.\3\ 
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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    \3\ The Commission intends to use this PRA clearance renewal to 
collect information from the companies regarding their marketing and 
sales activities for the years 2011, 2012, and 2013. Although the 
Commission anticipates that it will issue compulsory process orders 
one year at a time, it is possible that it might not do so and 
instead issue an order in an ensuing year for information covering 
two years. The estimates in this notice for hours and labor costs 
are annualized to reflect an average year over the course of a 
prospective three-year PRA clearance.
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    Total Annual Labor Cost: $210,000 (2,100 hours per year @ $100 per 
hour).
    Total Annual Capital or Other Non-Labor Cost: minimal.\4\
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    \4\ Although industry members may have to preserve relevant 
business records to accommodate the Commission's information 
requirements, they already have the means in place to do so.
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    Request for comment: You can file a comment online or on paper. For 
the Commission to consider your comment, we must receive it on or 
before

[[Page 72707]]

December 27, 2011. Write ``Tobacco Reports: Paperwork Comment, FTC File 
No. P054507'' on your comment. Your comment, including your name and 
your state, will be placed on the public record of this proceeding, 
including, to the extent practicable, on the public Commission Web 
site, at http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a matter of 
discretion, the Commission tries to remove individuals' home contact 
information from comments before placing them on the Commission Web 
site.
    Because your comment will be made public, you are solely 
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any 
sensitive personal information, such as anyone'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. You are also 
solely responsible for making sure that your comment does not include 
any sensitive health information, such as medical records or other 
individually identifiable health information. In addition, don't 
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information 
which is obtained from any person and which is privileged or 
confidential * * *, '' as provided in Section 6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 
U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR 4.10(a)(2). In 
particular, don't include competitively sensitive information, such as 
costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas, patterns, devices, 
manufacturing processes, or customer names.
    If you want the Commission to give your comment confidential 
treatment, you must file it in paper form, with a request for 
confidential treatment, and you have to follow the procedure explained 
in FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).\5\ Your comment will be kept 
confidential only if the FTC General Counsel, in his or her sole 
discretion, grants your request in accordance with the law and the 
public interest.
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    \5\ In particular, the written request for confidential 
treatment that accompanies the comment must include the factual and 
legal basis for the request, and must identify the specific portions 
of the comment to be withheld from the public record. See FTC Rule 
4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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    Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to 
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit 
your comments online, or to send them to the Commission by courier or 
overnight service. To make sure that the Commission considers your 
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/tobaccoreportspra2, by following the instructions on the web-based 
form. If this Notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov/#!home, you 
also may file a comment through that Web site.
    If you file your comment on paper, write ``Tobacco Reports: 
Paperwork Comment, FTC File No. P054507'' on your comment and on the 
envelope, and mail or deliver it to the following address: Federal 
Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Room H-113 (Annex J), 600 
Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20580. If possible, submit your 
paper comment to the Commission by courier or overnight service.
    Visit the Commission Web site at http://www.ftc.gov to read this 
Notice and the news release describing it. The FTC Act and other laws 
that 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 on or before December 27, 2011. You can find more 
information, including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, in 
the Commission's privacy policy, at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.
    Comments on the information collection requirements subject to 
review under the PRA should additionally be submitted to OMB. If sent 
by U.S. mail, they should be addressed to Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Attention: Desk 
Officer for the Federal Trade Commission, New Executive Office 
Building, Docket Library, Room 10102, 725 17th Street, NW., Washington, 
DC 20503. Comments sent to OMB by U.S. postal mail, however, are 
subject to delays due to heightened security precautions. Thus, 
comments instead should be sent by facsimile to (202) 395-5167.

David C. Shonka,
Acting General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2011-30344 Filed 11-23-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P