2021-09525. Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

AGENCY:

Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION:

Notice and request for comment.

SUMMARY:

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) requests that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) extend for 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 May 31, 2021.

DATES:

Comments must be received by June 7, 2021.

ADDRESSES:

Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice to www.reginfo.gov/​public/​do/​PRAMain. Find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under 30-day Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the search function. The reginfo.gov web link is a United States Government website produced by OMB and the General Services Administration (GSA). Under PRA requirements, OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) reviews Federal information collections.

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, [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Title: Rules and Regulations under the Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939, 16 CFR part 300.

OMB Control Number: 3084-0100.

Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.

Likely Respondents: Manufacturers, importers, processors and marketers of wool products.

Frequency of Response: Third party disclosure; recordkeeping requirement.

Estimated annual hours burden: 1,880,000 hours (160,000 recordkeeping hours + 1,720,000 disclosure hours).

Recordkeeping: 160,000 hours [4,000 wool firms incur an average 40 hours per firm].

Disclosure: 1,720,000 hours [240,000 hours for determining label content + 480,000 hours to draft and order labels + 1,000,000 hours to attach labels].

Estimated annual cost burden: $24,770,000 (solely relating to labor costs).^[1]

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.

Request for Comment

On February 8, 2021, the FTC sought public comment on the information collection requirements associated with the Rules. 86 FR 8640. The Commission received one germane comment from Agathon Associates that supported the Rules and the PRA collections the Rules require.^[2] However, this comment did not provide any evidence regarding the estimates for the annual hours of burden or the associated labor costs. 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 the Rule.

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, 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 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.

Josephine Liu,

Assistant General Counsel for Legal Counsel.

Footnotes

1.  Due to newly available information on hourly wage rates, the estimated annual labor cost was adjusted downward from $25,620,000 in the 60-Day FR Notice to $24,770,000 in the 30-Day FR Notice.

2.  See https://www.regulations.gov/​comment/​FTC-2021-0012-0003.