[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 34 (Tuesday, February 23, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10967-10969]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-03604]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), 
the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) is seeking public 
comment on its proposal to extend for an additional three years the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) clearance for information 
collection requirements in the Commission's rules and regulations under 
the Textile Fiber Products Identification Act (Textile Rules). That 
clearance expires on May 31, 2021.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before April 26, 2021.

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. Write ``Textile Rules; PRA 
Comment: FTC File No. P072108'' on your comment, and file your comment 
online at https://www.regulations.gov 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: Jock K. Chung, Attorney, Division of 
Enforcement, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 
Mail Code CC-9528, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20580, 
(202) 326-2984.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: Rules and Regulations under the Textile Fiber Products 
Identification Act, 16 CFR part 303.
    OMB Control Number: 3084-0101.
    Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.

[[Page 10968]]

    Likely Respondents: Manufacturers, importers, processors and 
marketers of textile fiber products.
    Frequency of Response: Third party disclosure; recordkeeping 
requirement.
    Estimated annual hours burden: 37,234,317 hours (1,180,725 
recordkeeping hours + 36,053,592 disclosure hours).
    Recordkeeping: 1,180,725 hours (approximately 18,165 textile firms 
incur average burden of 65 hours per firm).
    Disclosure: 36,053,592 hours (621,725 hours to determine label 
content + 765,200 hours to draft and order labels + 34,666,667 hours to 
attach labels).
    Estimated annual cost burden: $280,335,935 (solely relating to 
labor costs).
    Abstract: The Textile Fiber Products Identification Act (Textile 
Act) \1\ prohibits the misbranding and false advertising of textile 
fiber products. The Textile Rules establish disclosure requirements 
that assist consumers in making informed purchasing decisions, and 
recordkeeping requirements that assist the Commission in enforcing the 
Rules. The Rules also contain a petition procedure for requesting the 
establishment of generic names for textile fibers.
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    \1\ 15 U.S.C. 70 et seq.
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    As required by section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, 44 U.S.C. 
3506(c)(2)(A), the FTC is providing this opportunity for public comment 
before requesting that OMB extend the existing clearance for the 
information collection requirements contained in the Commission's 
Textile Rules.

Textile Rules Burden Statement

    Staff's burden estimates are based on data from the Department of 
Commerce's Bureau of the Census and International Trade Administration, 
the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and data or 
other input from the main industry association, the American Apparel 
and Footwear Association (AAFA), and from SICCode.com, which 
specializes in the business classification of SIC (Standard Industrial 
Classification) and NAICS (North American Industry Classification 
System) codes for business identification, verification, and targeting. 
The AAFA, a national trade association that represents U.S. apparel, 
footwear and other sewn products companies and their suppliers, has 
stated that ``[t]he use of labels on textiles and apparels is 
beneficial to consumers, manufacturers, and business in general as it 
allows for the necessary flow of information along the supply chain.'' 
\2\ The relevant information collection requirements in these Rules and 
staff's corresponding burden estimates follow. The estimates address 
the number of hours needed and the labor costs incurred to comply with 
the requirements. Staff believes that a significant portion of hours 
and labor costs currently attributable to burden below are time and 
financial resources usually and customarily incurred by persons in the 
course of their regular activity (e.g., industry participants already 
have and/or would have fiber content labels regardless of the Rules) 
and could be excluded from PRA-related burden.\3\
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    \2\ Page one from comment by Kevin M. Burke, President and CEO, 
American Apparel & Footwear Association, March 26, 2012, Advance 
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; Request for Public Comment; Rules and 
Regulations under the Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939; 77 FR 4498 
(Jan. 30, 2012).
    \3\ 5 CFR 1320.3(b)(2).
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    Estimated annual hours burden: 37,234,317 hours (1,180,725 
recordkeeping hours + 36,053,592 disclosure hours).
    Recordkeeping: Staff estimates that approximately 18,165 textile 
firms are subject to the Textile Rules' recordkeeping requirements. 
Based on an average burden of 65 hours per firm, the total 
recordkeeping burden is 1,180,725 hours.
    Disclosure: Approximately 9,565 textile firms, producing or 
importing about 20.8 billion textile fiber products annually, are 
subject to the Textile Rules' disclosure requirements.\4\ Staff 
estimates the burden of determining label content to be 65 hours per 
year per firm, or a total of 621,725 hours. and the burden of drafting 
and ordering labels to be 80 hours per firm per year, or a total of 
765,200 hours. Staff believes that the process of attaching labels is 
now fully automated and integrated into other production steps for 
about 40 percent of all affected products. For the remaining 12.48 
billion items (60 percent of 20.8 billion), the process is semi-
automated and requires an average of approximately ten seconds per 
item, for a total of 34,666,667 hours per year. Thus, the total 
estimated annual disclosure burden for all firms is 36,053,592 hours 
(621,725 hours to determine label content + 765,200 hours to draft and 
order labels + 34,666,667 hours to attach labels).\5\ Staff believes 
that any additional burden associated with advertising disclosure 
requirements or the filing of generic fiber name petitions would be 
minimal (less than 10,000 hours) and can be subsumed within the burden 
estimates set forth above.
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    \4\ The estimated consumption of garments in the U.S. in 2012 
was 19.4 billion. However, staff estimates that 1 billion garments 
are exempt from the Textile Act (i.e., any kind of headwear and 
garments made from something other than a textile fiber product, 
such as leather) or are subject to a special exemption for hosiery 
products sold in packages where the label information is contained 
on the package. Based on available data, staff estimates that an 
additional 3 billion household textile products (non-garments, such 
as sheets, towels, blankets) were consumed. However, approximately 
0.6 billion of all of these garments and household products are 
subject to the Wool Act, not the Textile Act, because they contain 
some amount of wool. Thus, the estimated net total products subject 
to the Textile Act is 20.8 billion (19.4-1 + 3 = 21.4-0.6 = 20.8 
billion).
    \5\ The Commission revised the Textile Rules in 2006 in response 
to amendments to the Textile Act. See 70 FR 73369 (Dec. 12, 2005). 
These amendments concerned the placement of labels on packages of 
certain types of socks and, therefore, do not place any additional 
disclosure burden on covered entities. In 2014, the Commission 
revised the Textile Rules to clarify and streamline certain 
provisions and to allow more flexibility in marketing textile 
products (e.g., allowing the use of certain hang-tags that do not 
disclose the product's full fiber content). The Commission sought 
comment on the increased burden, if any, imposed by these changes 
but did not receive any comments asserting that the amendments would 
increase compliance costs. See 79 FR 18766 (Apr. 4, 2014).
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    Estimated annual cost burden: $280,335,935 (solely relating to 
labor costs). The chart below summarizes the total estimated costs.
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    \6\ For imported products, the labels generally are attached in 
the country where the products are manufactured. According to 
information compiled by an industry trade association using data 
from the U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade 
Administration and the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 97.5% of 
apparel used in the United States is imported. With the remaining 
2.5% attributable to U.S. production at an approximate domestic 
hourly wage of $12 to attach labels, staff has calculated a weighted 
average hourly wage of $6.50 per hour attributable to U.S. and 
foreign labor combined.

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                              Task                                  Hourly rate    Burden hours     Labor cost
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Determine label content.........................................          $29.00         621,725     $18,030,025
Draft and order labels..........................................           19.00         765,200      14,538,800
Attach labels...................................................        \6\ 6.50      34,666,667     225,333,335
Recordkeeping...................................................           19.00       1,180,725      22,433,775
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[[Page 10969]]

 
    Total.......................................................  ..............  ..............     280,335,935
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    Staff believes that there are no current start-up costs or other 
capital costs associated with the Textile Rules. Because the labeling 
of textile products has been an integral part of the manufacturing 
process for decades, manufacturers have in place the capital equipment 
necessary to comply with the Rules' labeling requirements. Industry 
sources indicate that much of the information required by the Textile 
Act and Rules would be included on the product label even absent their 
requirements. Similarly, recordkeeping, invoicing, and advertising 
disclosures are tasks performed in the ordinary course of business; 
therefore, covered firms would incur no additional capital or other 
non-labor costs as a result of the Rules.

Request for Comments

    Pursuant to Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, 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 maintaining records and providing disclosures to 
consumers. All comments must be received on or before April 26, 2021.
    You can file a comment online or on paper. For the FTC to consider 
your comment, we must receive it on or before April 26, 2021. Write 
``Textile Rules; PRA Comment: FTC File No. P072108'' on your comment. 
Your comment--including your name and your state--will be placed on the 
public record of this proceeding, including the https://www.regulations.gov website.
    Due to the public health emergency in response to the COVID-19 
outbreak and the agency's heightened security screening, postal mail 
addressed to the Commission will be subject to delay. We encourage you 
to submit your comments online through the https://www.regulations.gov 
website.
    If you prefer to file your comment on paper, write ``Textile Rules; 
PRA Comment: FTC File No. P072108'' on your comment and on the 
envelope, and 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.
    Because your comment will become publicly available at https://www.regulations.gov, you are solely responsible for making sure that 
your comment does not include any sensitive or confidential 
information. In particular, your comment should not include any 
sensitive personal information, such as your or anyone else'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 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.
    Comments containing material for which confidential treatment is 
requested must be filed in paper form, must be clearly labeled 
``Confidential,'' and must comply with FTC Rule 4.9(c). 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). Your comment will be kept 
confidential only if the General Counsel grants your request in 
accordance with the law and the public interest. Once your comment has 
been posted publicly at www.regulations.gov, we cannot redact or remove 
your comment unless you submit a confidentiality request that meets the 
requirements for such treatment under FTC Rule 4.9(c), and the General 
Counsel grants that request.
    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 26, 
2021. For information on the Commission's privacy policy, including 
routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, see https://www.ftc.gov/site-information/privacy-policy.

Josephine Liu,
Assistant General Counsel for Legal Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2021-03604 Filed 2-22-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P