[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 150 (Thursday, August 4, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47187-47189]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-19672]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection;
Comment Request
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'').
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The FTC is seeking public comments on its proposal to extend
through January 31, 2015, the current PRA clearance for information
sought through compulsory process orders to a combined ten or more a
the largest cigarette manufacturers and smokeless tobacco manufacturers
in order to obtain
[[Page 47188]]
from them information including, among other things, their annual sales
and marketing expenditures. The current clearance expires on January
31, 2012. The information collection requirements described below will
be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (``OMB'') for
review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA'').
DATES: Comments on the proposed information requests must be received
on or before October 3, 2011.
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: ``Tobacco Reports:
Paperwork Comment, FTC File No. P054507'' on your comment, and file
your comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftchobaccoreportspra by following the instructions on the web-based
form. If you prefer to file your comment on paper, mail or deliver your
comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of
the Secretary, Room H-113 (Annex J), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.,
Washington, DC 20580.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or
copies of the proposed collection of information should be addressed to
Shira Modell, Division of Advertising Practices, Bureau of Consumer
Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., NJ-
3212, Washington, DC 20580. Telephone: (202) 326-3116.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: For more than forty years, the FTC has
published periodic reports containing data on domestic cigarette sales
and marketing expenditures by the major U.S. cigarette manufacturers.
It has published comparable reports on smokeless tobacco sales and
marketing expenditures for more than twenty years. Both reports
originally were issued pursuant to statutory mandates. After those
statutory mandates were terminated, the Commission continued to collect
and publish information obtained from the cigarette and smokeless
tobacco industries pursuant to Section 6(b) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C.
46(b). The current PRA clearance to collect this information is valid
through January 31, 2012, under OMB Control No. 3084-0134.
The FTC plans to continue sending information requests annually to
the ultimate parent company of several of the largest cigarette
companies and smokeless tobacco companies in the United States
(``industry members''). The information requests will seek data
regarding, inter alia: (1) The tobacco sales of industry members; (2)
how much industry members spend advertising and promoting their tobacco
products, and the specific amounts spent in each of a number of
specified expenditure categories; (3) whether industry members are
involved in the appearance of their products or brand imagery in
television shows, motion pictures, or the Internet; (4) how much
industry members spend on advertising intended to reduce youth tobacco
usage; (5) the events, if any, during which industry members' tobacco
brands are televised; and (6) for the cigarette industry, the tar,
nicotine, and carbon monoxide ratings of their cigarettes, to the
extent they possess such data.\1\ The information will again be sought
using compulsory process under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act.
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\1\ Although the Commission has rescinded the 1966 enforcement
policy that allowed factual statements of tar and nicotine yields
supported by testing conducted under what was commonly referred to
as ``the FTC Test Method,'' 73 FR 74,500 (Dec. 8, 2008), the
Commission believes it is important to continue collecting these
data, which researchers and policymakers use to track trends over
time.
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Under the PRA, 44 U.S.C. 3501-3521, federal agencies must obtain
approval from OMB for each collection of information they conduct or
sponsor. ``Collection of information'' means agency requests or
requirements that members of the public submit reports, keep records,
or provide information to a third party. 44 U.S.C. 3502(3), 5 CFR
1320.3(c). As required by section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, the FTC is
providing this opportunity for public comment before requesting that
OMB extend the existing paperwork clearance for the proposed collection
of information.
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 the collection of information on those who
are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated,
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic
submission of responses.
Estimated hours burden: The FTC staffs estimate of the hours burden
is based on the time required each year to respond to the Commission's
information request. Although the FTC currently anticipates sending
information requests each year to the five largest cigarette companies
and the five largest smokeless tobacco companies, the burden estimate
is based on up to 15 information requests being issued per year to take
into account any future changes in these industries. These companies
vary greatly in size, in the number of products they sell, and in the
extent and variety of their advertising and promotion. Prior input
received from the industries, combined with staffs knowledge of them,
suggests that the time most companies would require to gather,
organize, format, and produce their responses would range from 30 to 80
hours per information request for the smaller companies, to as much as
hundreds of hours for the very largest companies. As an approximation,
staff continues to assume a per company average of 180 hours for the
ten largest recipients of the Commission's information requests to
comply--cumulatively, 1,800 hours per year, or 5,400 hours over the
three years that would be covered by an extension of OMB's approval
under the PRA.
Staff anticipates that if the Commission decides to issue
information requests to an additional one or more companies, those
companies would be smaller than the primary ten recipients and the
burden would therefore be less than on the larger companies. Staff
believes that the burden should not exceed 60 hours for these smaller
recipients of information requests. Cumulatively, then, the total
burden for five additional respondents should not exceed 300 hours per
year or 900 hours over a three-year OMB clearance. Thus, the overall
estimated burden for a maximum of 15 recipients of the information
requests is 2,100 hours per year or a total of 6,300 hours. These
estimates include any time spent by separately incorporated
subsidiaries and other entities affiliated with the ultimate parent
company that has received the information request.
Estimated cost burden: It is not possible to calculate with
precision the labor costs associated with this data production, as they
entail varying compensation levels of management and/or support staff
among companies of different sizes. Commission staff assumes that
personnel with technical training will handle most of the tasks
involved in the data collection process,
[[Page 47189]]
although legal staff likely will be involved in preparing the actual
submission to the Commission, and has applied an average hourly wage of
$100/hour for their combined labor. Accordingly, staffs best estimate
for the total labor costs for up to 15 information requests is $210,000
per year, for a total of $630,000 over the entire three-year period.
Staff believes that the capital or other non-labor costs associated
with the information requests are minimal. Although the information
requests may necessitate that industry members maintain the requested
information provided to the Commission, they should already have in
place the means to compile and maintain business records.
Request for comment: You can file a comment online or on paper. For
the Commission to consider your comment, we must receive it on or
before October 3, 2011. Write ``Tobacco Reports: Paperwork Comment, FTC
File No. P054507'' on your comment. Your comment--including your name
and your state--will be placed on the public record of this proceeding,
including, to the extent practicable, on the public Commission Web
site, at http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a matter of
discretion, the Commission tries to remove individuals' home contact
information from comments before placing them on the Commission Web
site. 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, don't
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information
which is obtained from any person and 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), 16 CFR 4.10(a)(2). In
particular, don't include competitively sensitive information, such as
costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas, patterns, devices,
manufacturing processes, or customer names.
If you want the Commission to give your comment confidential
treatment, you must file it in paper form, with a request for
confidential treatment, and you have to follow the procedure explained
in FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).\2\ Your comment will be kept
confidential only if the FTC General Counsel, in his or her sole
discretion, grants your request in accordance with the law and the
public interest.
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\2\ 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), 16 CFR4.9(c).
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Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit
your comments online, or to send them to the Commission by courier or
overnight service. To make sure that the Commission considers your
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/tobaccoreportspra, by following the instructions on the web-based
form. If this Notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov/#!home, you
also may file a comment through that Web site.
If you file your comment on paper, write ``Tobacco reports:
Paperwork Comment, FTC File No. P054507'' on your comment and on the
envelope, and mail or deliver it to the following address: Federal
Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Room H-113 (Annex J), 600
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20580. If possible, submit
your paper comment to the Commission by courier or overnight service.
Visit the Commission Web site at http://www.ftc.gov to read this
Notice and the news release describing it. 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 October 3, 2011. You can find more
information, including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, in
the Commission's privacy policy, at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.
David C. Shonka,
Acting General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2011-19672 Filed 8-3-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-M