[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 142 (Monday, July 25, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48421-48423]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-17474]


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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

[[Page 48422]]

required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA''). The FTC is seeking 
public comments on its proposal to extend for an additional three years 
the current PRA clearance for information collection requirements in 
its Telemarketing Sales Rule (``TSR''). That clearance expires on 
August 31, 2016.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before August 24, 2016.

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 ``TSR PRA Comment, FTC 
File No. P094400'' on your comment, and file your comment online at 
https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/tsrrulepra2 by following the 
instructions on the web-based form. If you prefer to file your comment 
on paper, mail your comment to the following address: Federal Trade 
Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite 
CC-5610 (Annex J), Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the 
following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 
Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex 
J), Washington, DC 20024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the proposed information requirements for the TSR should be 
addressed by mail to Craig Tregillus, Staff Attorney, Division of 
Marketing Practices, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade 
Commission, Room CC-8607, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC 
20580, or by telephone to (202) 326-2970.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On April 14, 2016, the Commission requested 
public comment on the information collection requirements and related 
PRA burden estimates associated with the TSR. 81 FR 22082 (``April 14, 
2016 Notice''). Pursuant to the OMB regulations, 5 CFR part 1320, that 
implement the PRA, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq., the FTC is providing this 
second opportunity for public comment while seeking OMB approval to 
renew clearance for those information collection requirements.
    In response to its prior request for public comment, the Commission 
received ten comments, most of which were either non-germane or not 
directly responsive to the nature of the public comments sought. As 
required by the PRA, the Commission had sought public comments 
specifically on the following:
    (1) Whether the recordkeeping, disclosure, and reporting 
requirements are necessary, including whether the resulting information 
will be practically useful; (2) the accuracy of the FTC's burden 
estimates, including whether the methodology and assumptions used are 
valid; (3) how to improve the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
disclosure requirements; and (4) how to minimize the burden of 
providing the required information to consumers.
    None of the public comments directly addressed the above and, 
lacking independent reason thus far to revise its burden estimates, the 
FTC will submit for OMB review, contemporaneous with this published 
Notice, its previously published burden estimates on the TSR's 
disclosure, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements. For more details 
about the Rule requirements, the background behind these information 
collection provisions, and the FTC's burden estimates and methodology 
behind them, see the April 14, 2016 Notice.
    To clarify for purposes of receiving public comments for this 
second Notice, the disclosure, recordkeeping, and reporting 
requirements for which the Commission sought public comment concern 
such requirements imposed upon telemarketers and/or other sellers who 
are subject to, and not otherwise exempted under, the TSR. Some types 
of businesses are not covered by the TSR even though they conduct 
telemarketing campaigns that may involve some interstate telephone 
calls to sell goods or services. These three types of entities are not 
subject to the FTC's jurisdiction, and not covered by the TSR:
     Banks, federal credit unions, and federal savings and 
loans
     common carriers--such as long-distance telephone companies 
and airlines--when they are engaging in common carrier activity
     non-profit organizations--those entities that are not 
organized to carry on business for their own, or their members,' 
profit.
    The above types of entities are not covered by the TSR because they 
are specifically exempt from the FTC's jurisdiction. Nevertheless, any 
other for profit individual or company that contracts with one of these 
three types of entities to provide telemarketing services must comply 
with the TSR. Moreover, some types of calls also are not covered by the 
TSR, regardless of whether the entity making or receiving the call is 
covered. These include:
     Unsolicited calls from consumers
     calls placed by consumers in response to a catalog
     business-to-business calls that do not involve retail 
sales of nondurable office or cleaning supplies
     calls made in response to general media advertising (with 
some important exceptions)
     calls made in response to direct mail advertising (with 
some important exceptions)
     Political campaign calls protected by the First Amendment.
    Public comments on the April 14, 2016 Notice ranged from a 
complaint about receiving repeated unsolicited ``junk'' telefaxes--to a 
complaint that the FTC fails to enforce the TSR--to a suggestion that 
the FTC consider ways to pro-actively thwart unsolicited calls to 
mobile phones in a vein similar to which ``NoMoRobo'' (http://www.nomorobo.com) blocks some unwanted robocalls (to date, Nomorobo 
works only with some landline carriers, and not with cell phones)--to a 
suggestion, more generally, ``that better automation [be devised] in 
addressing the illegal calling issue.''
    In response, the FTC notes that Federal Communication Commission 
rules, not the FTC's TSR, address ``junk'' telefaxes. (See https://www.fcc.gov/stop-unwanted-calls.) To date, the FTC has brought at least 
105 enforcement actions against companies and telemarketers for Do Not 
Call, abandoned call, robocall (i.e., automated dialing technology to 
make calls that deliver prerecorded messages), and Registry violations 
(https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/do-not-call-registry/enforcement). A variety of new technologies has increased the number of 
illegal telemarketing calls made to telephone numbers on the Registry. 
The net effect of these new technologies is that individuals and 
companies who do not care about complying with the Registry or other 
telemarketing laws are able to make more illegal telemarketing calls 
cheaply and in a manner that makes it difficult for the FTC and other 
law enforcement agencies to find them. The FTC continues to solicit 
ideas and assistance to combat illegal automated calls: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2015/03/ftc-announces-new-robocall-contests-combat-illegal-automated. Moreover, the FTC in tandem 
with other law enforcement agencies continues to bring actions against 
illegal telemarketing calls: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/do-not-call-registry/robocalls. The FTC also continues to 
track how technology affects the Registry and the consumers and 
telemarketers who access it.
    To reiterate, pursuant to its obligations under the PRA, the FTC 
seeks public comment on the necessity of its TSR recordkeeping, 
disclosure,

[[Page 48423]]

and reporting requirements, whether the information resulting from 
those requirements will be practically useful, the accuracy of the 
FTC's associated PRA burden estimates, and how to improve the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the TSR's disclosure requirements while also 
minimizing the burden on affected entities to provide the required 
information to consumers.
    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 August 24, 2016. Write ``TSR PRA Comment, FTC File No. P094400'' 
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 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, 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).\1\ Your comment will be kept confidential only if 
the FTC General Counsel grants your request in accordance with the law 
and the public interest.
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    \1\ 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. To make sure that the Commission considers your 
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/tsrrulepra2, by following the instructions on the web-based form. 
When 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 ``TSR PRA Comment, FTC 
File No. P094400'' on your comment and on the envelope, mail your 
comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of 
the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex J), 
Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the following address: 
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Constitution Center, 
400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex J), Washington, DC 
20024. 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 August 24, 
2016. For information on the Commission's privacy policy, including 
routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, see http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.
    Comments on the recordkeeping, disclosure, and reporting 
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) 395-5806.

David C. Shonka,
Acting General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2016-17474 Filed 7-22-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6750-01-P