[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 52 (Tuesday, March 18, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15125-15126]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-05844]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities;

    Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Notice and request for comment.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, 
the FTC is seeking public comments on its request to OMB for a three-
year extension of the current PRA clearance for the information 
collection requirements contained in the Informal Dispute Settlement 
Procedures Rule. That clearance expires on March 31, 2014.

DATES: Comments must be received by April 17, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment online or on paper, by 
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the

[[Page 15126]]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the proposed information requirements should be addressed to 
Svetlana Gans, Attorney, Division of Marketing Practices, Bureau of 
Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, Room H-286, 600 
Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20580, (202) 326-3708.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: Informal Dispute Settlement Procedures Rule (the Dispute 
Settlement Rule or the Rule), 16 CFR 703.
    OMB Control Number: 3084-0113.
    Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
    Abstract: The Informal Dispute Settlement Procedures Rule (the 
Dispute Settlement Rule or the Rule) specifies the minimum standards 
which must be met by any informal dispute settlement mechanism (IDSM) 
that is incorporated into a written consumer product warranty and which 
the consumer must use before pursuing legal remedies under the 
Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, 15 U.S.C. 2301 et seq. (Warranty Act or 
Act) in court. These minimum standards for IDSMs include requirements 
concerning the mechanism's structure (e.g., funding, staffing, and 
neutrality), the qualifications of staff or decision makers, the 
mechanism's procedures for resolving disputes (e.g., notification, 
investigation, time limits for decisions, and follow-up), 
recordkeeping, and annual audits. The Rule requires that IDSMs 
establish written operating procedures and provide copies of those 
procedures upon request. The Rule applies only to those firms that 
choose to be bound by it by requiring consumers to use an IDSM. A 
warrantor is free to set up an IDSM that does not comply with the Rule 
as long as the warranty does not contain a prior resort requirement.
    On December 10, 2013, the Commission sought comment on the Rule's 
information collection requirements.\1\ The Commission did not receive 
any comments. As required by OMB regulations, 5 CFR part 1320, the FTC 
is providing this second opportunity for public comment.
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    \1\ See 78 FR 74142 (60-Day Federal Register Notice).
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    Likely Respondents: Warrantors (Automobile Manufacturers) and 
Informal Dispute Settlement Mechanisms
    Estimated Annual Hours Burden: 8,318 hours (derived from (5,757 
hours for recordkeeping + 1,919 hours for reporting + 642 hours for 
disclosures).
    Estimated Number of Respondents, Estimated Average Burden per 
Respondent:
    (a) Recordkeeping--IDSMs, 2, 30 minutes/case for 11,514 annual 
consumer cases;
    (b) Reporting--IDSMs, 2, 10 minutes/case for 11,514 annual consumer 
cases; &
    (c) Disclosures--Warrantors, 15, annual 30 hours; IDSMs, 2, 5 
minutes/case for 2,303 consumer cases.
    Frequency of Response: Periodic.
    Total Annual Labor Cost: $161,000, rounded to nearest thousand.
    Total Annual Capital or Other Non-Labor Cost: $314,000, rounded to 
the nearest thousand.

Request for Comments

    You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to 
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before April 17, 2014. 
Write ``Warranty Rules: Paperwork Comment, FTC File No. P044403'' 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, 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 are required 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 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, we encourage you to submit 
your comment online, or to send it 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/idsrpra2, 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 ``Warranty Rules: 
Paperwork Comment, FTC File No. P044403'' 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.
    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 April 17, 
2014. 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.shtm.
    Comments on the information collection requirements subject to 
review under the PRA should also be submitted to OMB. If sent by U.S. 
mail, address comments 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,
Principal Deputy General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2014-05844 Filed 3-17-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P