Notice2024-01001
Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Extension
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
January 19, 2024
Issuing agencies
Federal Trade Commission
Abstract
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 Textile Fiber Products Identification Act ("Textile Rules"). That clearance expires on June 30, 2024.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 13 (Friday, January 19, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 13 (Friday, January 19, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3659-3661]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-01001]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
[File No. P072108]
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 Textile Fiber Products Identification Act
(``Textile 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 ``Textile Rules; PRA
Comment: FTC File No. P072108'' on your comment, and file your comment
online at <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> 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 Textile Fiber
Products Identification Act, 16 CFR part 303.
OMB Control Number: 3084-0101.
Type of Review: Extension without change of currently approved
collection.
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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Likely Respondents: Manufacturers, importers, processors, and
marketers of textile fiber products.
Frequency of Response: Third party disclosure; recordkeeping
requirement.
Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 43,234,317 hours (1,180,725
recordkeeping hours + 42,053,592 disclosure hours).
Recordkeeping: 1,180,725 hours (approximately 18,165 textile firms
incur average burden of 65 hours per firm).
Disclosure: 42,053,592 hours (621,725 hours to determine label
content + 765,200 hours to draft and order labels + 40,666,667 hours to
attach labels).
Estimated Annual Cost Burden: $324,538,414.59.
[[Page 3660]]
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 Textile Rules.
Burden Statement
FTC 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 <a href="http://SICCode.com">SICCode.com</a>,
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. 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 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 Burden Hours: 43,234,317 hours (1,180,725
recordkeeping hours + 42,053,592 disclosure hours).
Recordkeeping: FTC 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 24.4 billion textile fiber products annually, are
subject to the Textile Rules' disclosure requirements.\4\
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\4\ The estimated consumption of garments in the U.S. in 2022
was 22.8 billion. However, FTC staff estimates that 1.2 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, FTC staff estimates that an
additional 3.5 billion household textile products (non-garments,
such as sheets, towels, blankets) were consumed. However,
approximately 0.7 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 24.4 billion (22.8 - 1.2 +
3.5 = 25.1 - 0.7 = 24.4 billion).
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FTC staff estimates that the burden of determining label content is
65 hours per year per firm, or a total of 621,725 hours, and the burden
of drafting and ordering labels is 80 hours per firm per year, or a
total of 765,200 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 14.64 billion items (60 percent of 24.4 billion), the process
is semi-automated and requires an average of approximately ten seconds
per item, for a total of 40,666,667 hours per year. Thus, the total
estimated annual disclosure burden for all firms is 42,053,592 hours
(621,725 hours to determine label content + 765,200 hours to draft and
order labels + 40,666,667 hours to attach labels).\5\ FTC 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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\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: $324,538,414.59. The chart below
summarizes the total estimated costs.
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\6\ 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
<a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.htm">https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.htm</a> (released on Apr. 25,
2023).
\7\ The wage rate for correspondence clerks is based on recent
data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment
Statistics Survey at <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.htm">https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.htm</a>.
\8\ 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, FTC staff has calculated a
weighted average hourly wage of $6.52 per hour attributable to U.S.
and foreign labor combined.
\9\ This estimate includes the wage rate for correspondence
clerks.
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Burden
Task Hourly rate hours Labor cost
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Determine label content............................................ \6\ $31.49 621,725 $19,578,120.25
Draft and order labels............................................. \7\ 20.46 765,200 15,655,992.00
Attach labels...................................................... \8\ 6.52 40,666,667 265,146,668.84
Recordkeeping...................................................... \9\ 20.46 1,180,725 24,157,633.50
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Total.......................................................... ........... ........... 324,538,414.59
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FTC 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
[[Page 3661]]
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 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
<a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> 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 <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> website.
If you file your comment on paper, write ``Textile 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 <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a>, 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 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 <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>, 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 <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/site-information/privacy-policy">https://www.ftc.gov/site-information/privacy-policy</a>.
Josephine Liu,
Assistant General Counsel for Legal Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2024-01001 Filed 1-18-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on January 19, 2024.
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