[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 188 (Friday, September 27, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51162-51163]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-20963]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


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

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

ACTION: Notice and request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The FTC requests that the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) extend for three years the current PRA clearance for information 
collection requirements contained in the Contact Lens Rule (Rule). That 
clearance expires on October 31, 2019.

DATES: Comments must be received by October 28, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Comments in response to this notice should be submitted to 
the OMB Desk Officer for the Federal Trade Commission within 30 days of 
this notice. You may submit comments using any of the following 
methods:
    Electronic: Write ``Contact Lens Rule: PRA Comment, P072108,'' on 
your comment and file your comment online at https://www.regulations.gov, by following the instructions on the web-based 
form.
    Email: [email protected].
    Fax: (202) 395-5806.
    Mail: 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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paul Spelman, Attorney, Division of 
Advertising Practices, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade 
Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Mail Drop CC-10528, Washington, 
DC 20580, at (202) 326-2487.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: Contact Lens Rule (Rule), 16 CFR part 315.
    OMB Control Number: 3084-0127.
    Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
    Abstract: The Rule was promulgated by the FTC pursuant to the 
Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act (FCLCA), Public Law 108-164 
(Dec. 6, 2003), which was enacted to enable consumers to purchase 
contact lenses from the seller of their choice. The Rule became 
effective on August 2, 2004. As mandated by the FCLCA, the Rule 
requires the release and verification of contact lens prescriptions 
which are generally valid for one year and contains recordkeeping 
requirements applying to both prescribers and sellers of contact 
lenses.
    Specifically, the Rule requires that prescribers provide a copy of 
the prescription to the consumer upon the completion of a contact lens 
fitting, even if the patient does not request it, and verify or provide 
prescriptions to authorized third parties. The Rule also mandates that 
a contact lens seller may sell contact lenses only in accordance with a 
prescription that the seller either: (a) Has received from the patient 
or prescriber; or (b) has verified through direct communication with 
the prescriber. In addition, the Rule imposes recordkeeping 
requirements on contact lens prescribers and sellers. For example, the 
Rule requires prescribers to document in their patients' records the 
medical reasons for setting a contact lens prescription expiration date 
of less than one year. The Rule requires contact lens sellers to 
maintain records for three years of all direct communications involved 
in obtaining verification of a contact lens prescription, as well as 
prescriptions, or copies thereof, which they receive directly from 
customers or prescribers.
    The information retained under the Rule's recordkeeping 
requirements is used by the Commission to substantiate compliance with 
the Rule and may also provide a basis for the Commission to bring an 
enforcement action. Without the required records, it would be difficult 
either to ensure that entities are complying with the Rule's 
requirements or to bring enforcement actions based on violations of the 
Rule.
    On July 5, 2019, the FTC sought comment on the information 
collection requirements associated with the Rule. 84 FR 32170. The FTC 
received no comments that were germane to the issues that the agency 
sought comment on pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) renewal 
request. Pursuant to 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 the 
pre-existing clearance for the Rule. For more details about the Rule 
requirements and the basis for the calculations summarized below, see 
84 FR 32170.
    Likely Respondents: Contact lens prescribers and contact lens 
sellers.
    Estimated Annual Hours Burden: 2,104,050 hours (derived from 
1,045,650 hours + 1,058,400 hours).
     Contact Lens Prescribers: 750,000 hours (45 million 
contact lens wearers x 1 minute per prescription/60 minutes) + 295,650 
hours (3,547,800 verification requests x 3 minutes/60 minutes) = 
1,045,650 hours
     Contact Lens Sellers: 985,500 hours (11,826,000 orders x 5 
minutes/60 minutes) + 72,900 burden hours (4,374,000 orders x 1 minute/
60 minutes) = 1,058,400 hours
    Estimated Annual Cost Burden: $84,548,448, which is derived from 
($57.68 x 888,802.5 optometrist hours) + ($98.02 x 156,847.5 
ophthalmologist hours) + ($16.92 x 1,058,400 office clerk hours).\1\
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    \1\ The hourly wage rates for sales and related workers are 
based on mean hourly wages found at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.htm (``Occupational Employment and Wages-May 
2018,'' U.S. Department of Labor, released March 2019, Table 1 
(``National employment and wage data from the Occupational 
Employment Statistics survey by occupation, May 2018'').
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Request for Comment

    Your comment--including your name and your state--will be placed on 
the public record of this proceeding at the https://www.regulations.gov 
website. 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, your comment 
should not include any ``trade secret or any commercial or financial 
information which . . . is privileged or

[[Page 51163]]

confidential''--as provided by 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)--including in 
particular competitively sensitive information such as costs, sales 
statistics, inventories, formulas, patterns, devices, manufacturing 
processes, or customer names.

Heather Hippsley,
Deputy General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2019-20963 Filed 9-26-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P