[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 224 (Wednesday, November 20, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64072-64074]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-25110]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the
Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment
Request
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.
ACTION: Notice and request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'')
requests that the Office of Management and Budget (``OMB'') extend for
an additional three years the current Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA'')
clearance for information collection requirements in its ``Used Motor
Vehicle Trade Regulation Rule'' (``Used Car Rule'' or ``Rule''), which
applies to used vehicle dealers. The existing clearance expires on
December 31, 2019.
DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before December 20, 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 ``Used Car Rule, PRA Comment, FTC File No.
P137606,'' 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].
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: Elizabeth Scott, (312) 960-5609,
Attorney, Midwest Region, Federal Trade Commission, 230 South Dearborn
Street, Suite 3030, Chicago, IL 60604.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), the FTC has submitted to the Office of
Management and Budget (``OMB'') this request for extension of the
previously approved collection of information discussed below.
Title: Used Motor Vehicle Trade Regulation Rule.
OMB Control Number: 3084-0108.
Type of Review: Extension of currently approved collection.
Estimated Total Annual Hours Burden: 2,368,993.
The component tasks associated with the Rule's required display of
Buyers
[[Page 64073]]
Guides include: (1) Ordering and stocking Buyers Guides; (2) entering
data on Buyers Guides; (3) displaying the Buyers Guides on vehicles;
(4) revising Buyers Guides as necessary; and (5) complying with the
Rule's requirements for sales conducted in Spanish.
1. Ordering and Stocking Buyers Guides: Staff has estimated that
used car dealers should need no more than an average of two hours per
year to obtain Buyers Guides, which are readily available from many
commercial printers or can be produced by an office word-processing or
desk-top publishing system.\1\ Based on an estimated population of
53,779 dealers, the annual hours burden for producing or obtaining and
stocking Buyers Guides is 107,558 hours.
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\1\ Buyers Guides are also available online from the FTC's
website, www.ftc.gov, at http://business.ftc.gov/selected-industries/automobiles.
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2. Entering Data on Buyers Guides: Staff estimates that dealers
will require an average of two minutes per Buyers Guide to enter
applicable data on Buyers Guides. For used cars sold under warranty,
the time required to check the ``Warranty'' box and to add warranty
information, such as the additional information required in the
Percentage of Labor/Parts and the Systems Covered/Duration sections of
the Buyers Guide, will depend on whether the dealer uses a manual or
automated process or Buyers Guides that are pre-printed with the
dealer's standard warranty terms. Staff estimates that these tasks will
take an average of one additional minute, i.e., cumulatively, an
average total time of three minutes for each used car sold under
warranty.
Staff estimates that dealers sell approximately fifty percent of
used cars ``as is'' and the other half under warranty. Therefore, staff
estimates that the overall time required to enter data on Buyers Guides
consists of 486,906 hours for used cars sold without a warranty
(29,214,371 vehicles x 50% x 2 minutes per vehicle) and 730,359 hours
for used cars sold under warranty (29,214,371 vehicles x 50% x 3
minutes per vehicle) for a cumulative estimated total of 1,217,265
hours.
3. Displaying Buyers Guides on Vehicles: Although the time required
to display the Buyers Guides on each used car may vary, FTC staff
estimates that dealers will spend an average of 1.75 minutes per
vehicle to match the correct Buyers Guide to the vehicle and to display
it on the vehicle. The estimated burden associated with this task is
approximately 852,086 hours for the estimated 29,214,371 vehicles sold
annually (29,214,371 vehicles x 1.75 minutes per vehicle).
4. Revising Buyers Guides as Necessary: If negotiations between the
buyer and seller over warranty coverage produce a sale on terms other
than those originally entered on the Buyers Guide, the dealer must
revise the Buyers Guide to reflect the actual terms of sale. According
to the original rulemaking record, bargaining over warranty coverage
rarely occurs. Staff notes that consumers often do not need to
negotiate over warranty coverage because they can find vehicles that
are offered with the desired warranty coverage online or in other ways
before ever contacting a dealer. Accordingly, staff assumes that
dealers will revise the Buyers Guide in no more than two percent of
sales, with an average time of two minutes per revision. Therefore,
staff estimates that dealers annually will spend approximately 19,476
hours revising Buyers Guides (29,214,371 vehicles x 2% x 2 minutes per
vehicle).
5. Spanish Language Sales: The Rule requires dealers to make
contract disclosures in Spanish if the dealer conducts a sale in
Spanish.\2\ The Rule permits displaying both an English and a Spanish
language Buyers Guide to comply with this requirement.\3\ Many dealers
with large numbers of Spanish-speaking customers likely will post both
English and Spanish Buyers Guides to avoid potential compliance
violations.
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\2\ 16 CFR 455.5.
\3\ Id.
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Calculations from United States Census Bureau surveys indicate that
approximately 5.4 percent of the United States population speaks
Spanish at home, without also speaking fluent English.\4\ Staff
therefore projects that dealers will conduct approximately 5.4 percent
of used car sales in Spanish. Dealers will incur the additional burden
of completing and displaying a second Buyers Guide in 5.4 percent of
sales assuming that dealers choose to comply with the Rule by posting
both English and Spanish Buyers Guides. The annual hours burden
associated with completing and displaying Buyers Guides is 2,069,351
hours (1,217,265 hours for entering data on Buyers Guides + 852,086
hours for displaying Buyers Guides). Therefore, staff estimates that
the additional burden caused by the Rule's requirement that dealers
display Spanish language Buyers Guides when conducting sales in Spanish
is 111,745 hours (2,069,351 hours x 5.4% of sales). The other
components of the annual hours burden, i.e., purchasing Buyers Guides
and revising them for changes in warranty coverage, remain unchanged.
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\4\ U.S. Census Bureau, TableB16001. Language Spoken at Home.
2017 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, available at:
https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_11_1YR_B16001&prodType=table (last visited
June 7, 2019) (5.4% of the United States population 5 years or older
who speaks Spanish or Spanish Creole in the home speaks English less
than ``very well.'').
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6. Optional Disclosures of Non-Dealer Warranties: The Rule does not
require dealers to disclose information about non-dealer warranties,
but provides dealers with the options to disclose such warranties on
Buyers Guides. FTC staff has estimated that dealers will make the
optional disclosures on 25% of used cars offered for sale. Staff
believes that checking the optional boxes to disclose a non-dealer
warranty should require dealers no more than 30 seconds per vehicle.
Accordingly, based on 29,214,371 used cars sold, staff estimates that
making the optional disclosures entails a burden of 60,863 hours (25% x
29,214,371 vehicles sold x 1/120 hour per vehicle).
Annual labor cost: $40,083,362.
FTC staff's labor cost estimates are derived by applying
appropriate hourly cost figures to the burden hours described above.
Staff has determined that all of the tasks associated with ordering
forms, entering data on Buyers Guides, posting Buyers Guides on
vehicles, and revising them as needed, including the corresponding
tasks associated with Spanish Buyers Guides and providing optional
disclosures about non-dealer warranties, are typically done by clerical
or low-level administrative personnel. Using a clerical cost rate of
$16.92 per hour \5\ and an estimated burden of 2,368,993 hours for
disclosure requirements, the total labor cost burden is $40,083,362
($16.92 per hour x 2,368,993 hours).
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\5\ The hourly rate is based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics
estimate of the mean hourly wage for office clerks, general.
Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2018, 43-9061 Office Clerks,
General, available at: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes439061.htm#nat.
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Request for Comment
On August 8, 2019, the Commission sought comment on the information
collection requirements associated with the Used Car Rule. 84 FR 38979
(Aug. 8, 2019). No relevant 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 this second opportunity for public comment
while seeking OMB approval to renew the pre-existing clearance for
those information collection requirements. An agency may not conduct or
sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to a collection
[[Page 64074]]
of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number.
Your comment--including your name and your state--will be placed on
the public record of this proceeding. 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), 16CFR
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.
Heather Hippsley,
Deputy General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2019-25110 Filed 11-19-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P