[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 206 (Wednesday, October 24, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64994-64996]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-26168]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
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 (``PRA''). The FTC 
seeks public comments on its proposal to extend through February 28, 
2016, the current OMB clearance for information collection requirements 
contained in its Mail or Telephone Order Merchandise Trade Regulation 
Rule (``MTOR'' or ``Rule''). That clearance expires on February 28, 
2013.

DATES: Comments must be received by December 24, 2012.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment online or on paper, by 
following the instructions in the Request for Comments part of the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information 
should be addressed to Jock Chung, Attorney, Division of Enforcement, 
Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 600 
Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20580, (202) 326-2984.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Proposed Information Collection Activities

    Under the Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA''), 44 U.S.C. 3501-3520, 
federal agencies must get OMB approval for each collection of 
information they conduct, sponsor, or require. ``Collection of 
information'' means agency requests or requirements to submit reports, 
keep records, or provide information to a third party. 44 U.S.C. 
3502(3); 5 CFR 1320.3(c). As required by section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the 
PRA, the Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'') is providing this 
opportunity for public comment before requesting that OMB extend the 
existing PRA clearance for the information collection requirements 
associated with the Commission's rules and regulations under the Mail 
or Telephone Order Merchandise Trade Regulation Rule (``MTOR''), 16 CFR 
Part 435 (OMB Control Number 3084-0106).
    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. All comments must be received on or before December 24, 
2012.
    The MTOR was promulgated in 1975 in response to consumer complaints 
that many merchants were failing to ship merchandise ordered by mail on 
time, failing to ship at all, or failing to provide prompt refunds for 
unshipped merchandise. A second rulemaking proceeding in 1993 
demonstrated that the delayed shipment and refund problems of the mail 
order industry

[[Page 64995]]

were also being experienced by consumers who ordered merchandise over 
the telephone. Accordingly, the Commission amended the Rule, effective 
on March 1, 1994, to include merchandise ordered by telephone, 
including by telefax or by computer through the use of a modem (e.g., 
Internet sales), and the Rule was then renamed the ``Mail or Telephone 
Order Merchandise Rule.''
    Generally, the MTOR requires a merchant to: (1) Have a reasonable 
basis for any express or implied shipment representation made in 
soliciting the sale (if no express time period is promised, the implied 
shipment representation is 30 days); (2) notify the consumer and obtain 
the consumer's consent to any delay in shipment; and (3) make prompt 
and full refunds when the consumer exercises a cancellation option or 
the merchant is unable to meet the Rule's other requirements.\1\
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    \1\ The MTOR does not impose a recordkeeping requirements per 
se. 16 CFR 435.1(d) provides that, in an action for noncompliance, 
the absence of records that establish that a respondent-seller uses 
systems and procedures to assure compliance will create a rebuttable 
presumption that the seller was not compliant, but the MTOR does not 
require a compliant seller to maintain any records. Merchants 
customarily keep records regarding their systems and procedures in 
the ordinary course of business, however; consequently, their 
retention of these documents does not constitute a ``collection of 
information'' under OMB's regulations that implement the PRA. See 5 
CFR 1320.3(b)(2).
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    The notice provisions in the Rule require a merchant who is unable 
to ship within the promised shipment time or 30 days to notify the 
consumer of a revised date and his or her right to cancel the order and 
obtain a prompt refund. Delays beyond the revised shipment date also 
trigger a notification requirement to consumers. When the MTOR requires 
the merchant to make a refund and the consumer has paid by credit card, 
the Rule also requires the merchant to notify the consumer either that 
any charge to the consumer's charge account will be reversed or that 
the merchant will take no action that will result in a charge.
    Burden Statement:
    Estimated total annual hours burden: 1,764,390 hours.
    In its 2009-2010 PRA-related Federal Register Notices \2\ and 
corresponding submission to OMB, FTC staff estimated that established 
companies each spend an average of 50 hours per year on compliance with 
the Rule, and that new industry entrants spend an average of 230 hours 
(an industry estimate) for compliance measures associated with start-
up.\3\ Thus, the total estimated hours burden was calculated by 
multiplying the estimated number of established companies x 50 hours, 
multiplying the estimated number of new entrants x 230 hours, and 
adding the two products.
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    \2\ 74 FR 53500 (Oct. 19, 2009); 75 FR 2142 (Jan. 14, 2010).
    \3\ Most of the estimated start-up time relates to the 
development and installation of computer systems geared to more 
efficiently handle customer orders.
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    No substantive provisions in the Rule have been amended or changed 
since staff's prior submission to OMB.\4\ Thus, the Rule's disclosure 
requirements remain the same. Moreover, no public comments were 
received regarding the above-noted estimates; thus, staff will apply 
them to the current PRA burden analysis.
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    \4\ As part of the systematic review of all Commission rules, on 
September 30, 2011, the FTC published a Federal Register Notice 
concluding that the Rule continued to benefit consumers and would be 
retained. 76 FR 60715. For clarity, the Commission reorganized the 
Rule by alphabetizing the definitions at the beginning of the Rule. 
That amendment did not impose any additional ``collection of 
information'' requirements.
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    Since the prior submission to OMB, however, the number of 
businesses engaged in the sale of merchandise by mail or by telephone 
has changed. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau \5\ indicates that 
between 2000 and 2008 the number of businesses subject to the MTOR grew 
from 11,800 to 21,900, or an average increase of 1,263 new businesses a 
year [(21,900 businesses in 2008-11,800 businesses in 2000) / 8 
years].\6\ Assuming this growth rate continued in 2009 through 2012, 
and continues in 2013 through 2016, the average number of established 
businesses during the three-year period for which OMB clearance is 
sought for the Rule would be 29,478: \7\
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    \5\ See Table 1048, ``Retail Trade--Establishments, Employees, 
and Payroll,'' U.S. Census Bureau, ``County Business Patterns,'' 
July 2009 (www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s1048.xls 
).
    \6\ Conceptually, this might understate the number of new 
entrants in that it does not factor in the possibility that 
established businesses from an earlier year's comparison might have 
exited the market preceding the later year of measurement. Given the 
virtually unlimited diversity of retail establishments, it is very 
unlikely that there is a reliable external measure of such exit; 
nonetheless, as in the past, the Commission invites public comment 
that might better inform these estimates.
    \7\ As noted above, the existing OMB clearance for the Rule 
expires on January 31, 2013, and the FTC is seeking to extend the 
clearance through January 31, 2016.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                            Established
                  Year                      businesses     New entrants
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2013....................................          28,215           1,263
2014....................................          29,478           1,263
2015....................................          30,741           1,263
Average.................................          29,478           1,263
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    In an average year during the three-year OMB clearance period, 
staff estimates that established businesses and new entrants will 
devote 1,858,000 hours, rounded to the nearest thousand, to comply with 
the MTOR [(29,478 established businesses x 50 hours) + (1,263 new 
entrants x 230 hours) = 1,764,390].
    The estimated PRA burden per merchant to comply with the MTOR is 
likely overstated. The mail-order industry has been subject to the 
basic provisions of the Rule since 1976 and the telephone-order 
industry since 1994. Thus, businesses have had several years (and some 
have had decades) to integrate compliance systems into their business 
procedures. Moreover, arguably much of the estimated time burden for 
disclosure-related compliance would be incurred even absent the Rule. 
Industry trade associations and individual witnesses have consistently 
taken the position that compliance with the MTOR is widely regarded by 
direct marketers as being good business practice. Providing consumers 
with notice about the status of their orders fosters consumer loyalty 
and encourages repeat purchases, which are important to direct 
marketers' success. Accordingly, the Rule's notification requirements 
would be followed in any event by most merchants to meet consumer 
expectations regarding timely shipment, notification of delay, and 
prompt and full refunds. Thus, it appears that much of the time and 
expense associated with Rule compliance may not constitute ``burden'' 
under the PRA.\8\
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    \8\ Conceivably, in the three years since the FTC's most recent 
clearance request to OMB for this Rule, many businesses have 
upgraded the information management systems needed to comply with 
the Rule and to track orders more effectively. These upgrades, 
however, were primarily prompted by the industry's need to deal with 
growing consumer demand for merchandise (resulting, in part, from 
increased public acceptance of making purchases over the telephone 
and, more recently, the Internet). Accordingly, most companies now 
provide updated order information of the kind required by the Rule 
in their ordinary course of business. Under the OMB regulation 
implementing the PRA, burden is defined to exclude any effort that 
would be expended regardless of any regulatory requirement. 5 CFR 
1320.3(b)(2).
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    Estimated labor costs: $31,830,000 (rounded to the nearest 
thousand).
    FTC staff derived labor costs by applying appropriate hourly cost 
figures to the burden hours described above. According to the most 
recent data available from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics,\9\ the 
mean hourly income for

[[Page 64996]]

workers in sales and related occupations was $18.04/hr. The bulk of the 
burden of complying with the MTOR is borne by clerical personnel along 
with assistance from sales personnel. Staff believes that the mean 
hourly income for workers in sales and related occupations is an 
appropriate measure of a direct marketer's average labor cost to comply 
with the Rule. Thus, the total annual labor cost to new and established 
businesses for MTOR compliance during the three-year period for which 
OMB approval is sought would be approximately $31,830,000 (1,764,390 
hours x $18.04/hr.), rounded to the nearest thousand. Relative to 
direct industry sales, this total is negligible.\10\
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    \9\ See Table 1, National employment and wage data from the 
Occupational Employment Statistics survey by occupation, May 2011, 
at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ocwage.pdf.
    \10\ Considering that sales for ``electronic shopping and mail-
order houses'' grew from $80 billion in 1998 to $235.0 billion in 
2009 (according to Table 1055 in the 2012 Statistical Abstracts; 
found on 12s1055-1.xls available at http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/wholesale_retail_trade/online_retail_sales.html ), 
staff estimates the annual mail or telephone sales to consumers in 
the three-year period for which OMB clearance is sought will average 
$305 billion. Thus, the projected average labor cost for MTOR 
compliance by existing and new businesses for that period would 
amount to 0.01% of sales.
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    Estimated annual non-labor cost burden: $0 or minimal.
    The applicable requirements impose minimal start-up costs, as 
businesses subject to the Rule generally have or obtain necessary 
equipment for other business purposes, i.e., inventory and order 
management, and customer relations. For the same reason, staff 
anticipates printing and copying costs to be minimal, especially given 
that telephone order merchants have increasingly turned to electronic 
communications to notify consumers of delay and to provide cancellation 
options. Staff believes that the above requirements necessitate 
ongoing, regular training so that covered entities stay current and 
have a clear understanding of federal mandates, but that this would be 
a small portion of and subsumed within the ordinary training that 
employees receive apart from that associated with the information 
collected under the Rule.

Request for Comments

    You can file a comment online or on paper. Write ``Mail or 
Telephone Order Merchandise Trade Regulation Rule: FTC File No. 
R511929'' 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, like 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, like medical records or other 
individually identifiable health information. In addition, do not 
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information 
which is * * * privileged or confidential,'' as discussed 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, do not 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). 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.
    Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to 
heightened security screening. As a result, the Commission encourages 
you to submit your comments online. To make sure that the Commission 
considers your online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/MTORpra, by following the instructions 
on the web-based form. If this Notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov, you also may file a comment through that Web site.
    If you file your comment on paper, write ``Mail or Telephone Order 
Merchandise Trade Regulation Rule: FTC File No. R511929'' 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. 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 24, 
2012. 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.

David C. Shonka,
Acting General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2012-26168 Filed 10-23-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P