[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 141 (Tuesday, July 23, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44122-44124]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-17560]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB
Review; Comment Request
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.
ACTION: Notice and request for comment.
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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995,
the FTC is seeking public comments on its request to OMB for a three-
year extension of the current PRA clearance for the information
collection requirements contained in the Contact Lens Rule. That
clearance expires on July 31, 2013 (OMB Control No. 3084-0127).
DATES: Comments must be received by August 22, 2013.
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.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or
copies of the proposed information requirements should be addressed to
Alysa S. Bernstein, Attorney, or Bonnie McGregor, Federal Trade
Investigator, Division of Advertising Practices, Bureau of Consumer
Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.,
Washington, DC 20580, (202) 326-3289 (Bernstein) and (202) 326-2356
(McGregor).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: Contact Lens Rule (Rule), 16 CFR Part 315.
OMB Control Number: 3084-0127.
Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
Abstract: The FTC promulgated the Rule pursuant to the Fairness to
Contact Lens Consumers Act (FCLCA), Public Law 108-164 (Dec. 6, 2003),
which was enacted to enable consumers to purchase contact lenses from
the seller of their choice. The Rule became effective on August 2,
2004. As mandated by the FCLCA, the Rule requires the release and
verification of contact lens prescriptions and contains recordkeeping
requirements applying to
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both prescribers and sellers of contact lenses.
Specifically, the Rule requires that prescribers provide a copy of
the prescription to the consumer upon completion of a contact lens
fitting and verify or provide prescriptions to authorized third
parties. The Rule also mandates that a contact lens seller may sell
contact lenses only in accordance with a prescription that the seller
either: (a) Has received from the patient or prescriber; or (b) has
verified through direct communication with the prescriber. In addition,
the Rule imposes recordkeeping requirements on contact lens prescribers
and sellers. For example, the Rule requires prescribers to document in
their patients' records the medical reasons for setting a contact lens
prescription expiration date of less than one year. The Rule requires
contact lens sellers to maintain for three years records of all direct
communications involved in obtaining verification of a contact lens
prescription, as well as prescriptions, or copies thereof, that they
receive directly from customers or prescribers.
The information retained under the Rule's recordkeeping
requirements is used by the Commission to determine compliance with the
Rule and may also provide a basis for the Commission to bring an
enforcement action. Without the required records, it would be difficult
either to ensure that entities are complying with the Rule's
requirements or to bring enforcement actions for Rule violations.
On February 8, 2013, the Commission sought comment on the Rule's
information collection requirements.\1\ One comment was received, from
the American Optometric Association (``AOA''). That comment stated that
the majority of the information collected by the FTC is accurate, but
it provided alternate figures for some data, expressed disfavor of
passive verification, and sought more effective enforcement of the
Rule. Data provided by the AOA is reflected in updated burden estimates
set out below and are addressed in more detail within the Agency's
``Supporting Statement for Information Collection Provisions of the
Contact Lens Rule,'' which is available upon request from the FTC
contact officials and separately at www.reginfo.gov.
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\1\ See 78 FR 9391.
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As required by OMB regulations, 5 CFR Part 1320, the FTC is
providing this second opportunity for public comment.
Likely Respondents: Contact lens prescribers and contact lens
sellers.
Estimated Annual Hours Burden: 1,594,981 hours (derived from
685,514 hours + 909,467 hours).
Contact Lens Prescribers: 633,333 hours (38 million contact
lens wearers x 1 minute per prescription/60 minutes) + 52,181 hours
(1,043,613 wearers x 3 minutes/60 minutes) = 685,514 hours
Contact Lens Sellers: 852,625 hours (10,231,500 wearers x
5 minutes/60 minutes) + 56,842 hours (3,410,500 wearers x 1 minute/60
minutes) = 909,467 hours).
Estimated Annual Cost Burden: $48,991,000 (rounded to the nearest
thousand), which is derived from ($52.80 x 685,514 hours) + ($14.07 x
909,467 hours) = $48,991,340.\2\
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\2\ According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics from May 2012,
salaried optometrists earn an average wage of $52.80 per hour and
general office clerks earn an average wage of $14.07 per hour. See
Press Release, Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Department
of Labor, Occupational Employment and Wages--May 2012, Table 1 (Mar.
29, 2013), available at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.htm.
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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 August 22, 2013.
Write ``Contact Lens Rule: FTC File No. P054510'' 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, like medical records or other
individually identifiable health information. In addition, do not
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information
which is . . . privileged or confidential,'' as discussed 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, do not 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 are required to follow the procedure
explained in FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c). 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.
Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit
your comment online, or to send it 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/contactlensrulepra2, by following the instructions on the web-based
form. If this Notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov, you also
may file a comment through that Web site.
If you file your comment on paper, write ``Contact Lens Rule: FTC
File No. P054510'' 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. 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 August 22,
2013. 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.shtm.
Comments on the information collection requirements subject to
review under the PRA should also be submitted to OMB. If sent by U.S.
mail, address comments to: Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Attention: Desk Officer for
the Federal Trade Commission, New Executive Office Building, Docket
Library, Room 10102, 725 17th Street NW., Washington, DC 20503.
Comments sent to OMB by U.S. postal mail, however,
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are subject to delays due to heightened security precautions. Thus,
comments instead should be sent by facsimile to (202) 395-5167.
David C. Shonka,
Principal Deputy General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2013-17560 Filed 7-22-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P