[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 13 (Friday, January 19, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3655-3657]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-01005]
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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: The Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'') is
seeking public comments on its proposal to extend for an additional
three years the current Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA'') clearance for
information collection requirements contained in the Commission's rules
and regulations under the Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939 (``Wool
Rules''). That clearance expires on June 30, 2024.
DATES: Comments must be filed by March 19, 2024.
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 ``Wool 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.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jock K. Chung, Attorney, Division of
Enforcement, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission,
Mail Code CC-9528, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20580,
(202) 326-2984.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title of Collection: Rules and Regulations under the Wool Products
Labeling Act of 1939, 16 CFR part 300.
OMB Control Number: 3084-0100.
Type of Review: Extension without change of currently approved
collection.
Abstract: The Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939 (Wool Act)
prohibits the misbranding of wool products. The Wool Rules establish
disclosure requirements that assist consumers in making informed
purchasing decisions and recordkeeping requirements that assist the
Commission in enforcing the Rules.
Likely Respondents: Manufacturers, importers, processors, and
marketers of wool products.
Frequency of Response: Third party disclosure; recordkeeping
requirement.
Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 2,046,667 hours (160,000
recordkeeping hours + 1,886,667 disclosure hours).
Recordkeeping: 160,000 hours (4,000 wool firms incur an average 40
hours per firm).
Disclosure: 1,886,667 hours (240,000 hours for determining label
content + 480,000 hours to draft and order labels + 1,166,667 hours to
attach labels).
Estimated Annual Cost Burden: $28,258,668.84 (solely relating to
labor costs).
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 Wool Rules.
Burden Statement
FTC staff's burden estimates for the Wool Rules are based on data
from the Department of Commerce's Bureau of the Census, the
International Trade Commission, 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
which 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.'' \1\
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\1\ 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).
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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. FTC 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 care
[[Page 3656]]
labels regardless of the Rules) and could be excluded from PRA-related
burden.\2\
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\2\ 5 CFR 1320.3(b)(2).
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Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 2,046,667 hours (160,000
recordkeeping hours + 1,886,667 disclosure hours).
Recordkeeping: FTC staff estimates that approximately 4,000 wool
firms are subject to the Wool Rules' recordkeeping requirements. Based
on an average annual burden of 40 hours per firm, the total
recordkeeping burden is 160,000 hours.
Disclosure: Approximately 8,000 wool firms, producing or importing
about 700,000,000 wool products annually, are subject to the Wool
Rules' disclosure requirements. FTC staff estimates the burden of
determining label content to be 30 hours per year per firm, or a total
of 240,000 hours, and the burden of drafting and ordering labels to be
60 hours per firm per year, or a total of 480,000 hours. FTC 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 420,000,000 items (60 percent of
700,000,000), the process is semi-automated and requires an average of
approximately ten seconds per item, for a total of 1,166,667 hours per
year. Thus, the total estimated annual burden for all firms is
1,886,667 hours (240,000 hours for determining label content + 480,000
hours to draft and order labels + 1,166,667 hours to attach labels).
FTC staff believes that any additional burden associated with
advertising disclosure requirements would be minimal (less than 10,000
hours) and can be subsumed within the burden estimates set forth above.
Estimated Annual Cost Burden: $28,258,668.84 (solely relating to
labor costs). The chart below summarizes the total estimated costs.
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\3\ The wage rate for supervisors of office and administrative
support workers is based on data through May 2022 from the Bureau of
Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics Survey at
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.htm (released on April 25,
2023).
\4\ The wage rate for correspondence clerks is based on recent
data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment
Statistics Survey at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.htm.
\5\ 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 97.1% of
apparel used in the United States is imported. With the remaining
2.9% 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 $6.52 per hour attributable to U.S. and
foreign labor combined.
\6\ This estimate includes the wage rate for correspondence
clerks.
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Hourly Burden
Task rate hours Labor cost
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Determine label content....... $31.49 240,000 $7,557,600
\3\
Draft and order labels........ 20.46 \4\ 480,000 9,820,800
Attach labels................. 6.52 \5\ 1,166,667 7,606,668.84
Recordkeeping................. 20.46 \6\ 160,000 3,273,600
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Total..................... ......... ........... 28,258,668.84
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FTC staff believes that there are no current start-up costs or
other capital costs associated with the Wool Rules. Because the
labeling of wool 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. Based on
knowledge of the industry, staff believes that much of the information
required by the Wool Act and Rules would be included on the product
label even absent their requirements. Similarly, recordkeeping and
advertising disclosures are tasks performed in the ordinary course of
business so that covered firms would incur no additional capital or
other non-labor costs as a result of the Rules.
Request for Comment
Pursuant to section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, the FTC invites
comments on: (1) whether the disclosure and recordkeeping requirements
are necessary, including whether the information will be practically
useful; (2) the accuracy of our burden estimates, including whether the
methodology and assumptions used are valid; (3) ways to enhance the
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and
(4) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information.
For the FTC to consider a comment, we must receive it on or before
March 19, 2024. 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.
You can file a comment online or on paper. Due to 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 file your comment on paper, write ``Wool Rules; PRA Comment:
FTC File No. P072108'' on your comment and on the envelope, and mail it
to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the
Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite CC-5610 (Annex J),
Washington, DC 20580.
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 (1) be filed in paper form, (2) be clearly labeled
``Confidential,'' and (3) comply with FTC Rule 4.9(c). In particular,
the written request for confidential treatment that accompanies the
comment must include the factual and
[[Page 3657]]
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 March 19,
2024. 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. 2024-01005 Filed 1-18-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P