[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 226 (Friday, November 22, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70046-70047]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-27982]
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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 Consumer Product Warranty
Rule. That clearance expires on November 30, 2013 (OMB Control No.
3084-0111).
DATES: Comments must be received by December 23, 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
Svetlana Gans, Attorney, Division of Marketing Practices, Bureau of
Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, Room H-286, 600
Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20580, (202) 326-3708.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title: Rule Concerning Disclosure of Written
Consumer Product Warranty Terms and Conditions (the Consumer Product
Warranty Rule or Warranty Rule), 16 CFR Part 701.
OMB Control Number: 3084-0111.
Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
Abstract: The Warranty Rule is one of three rules \1\ that the FTC
implemented pursuant to requirements of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act,
15 U.S.C. 2301 et seq. (Warranty Act or Act). The Warranty Rule
specifies the
[[Page 70047]]
information that must appear in a written warranty on a consumer
product costing more than $15. The Rule tracks Section 102(a) of the
Warranty Act, specifying information that must appear in the written
warranty and, for certain disclosures, mandates the exact language that
must be used. Neither the Warranty Rule nor the Act requires that a
manufacturer or retailer warrant a consumer product in writing, but if
they choose to do so, the warranty must comply with the Rule.
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\1\ The other two rules relate to the pre-sale availability of
warranty terms and minimum standards for informal dispute settlement
mechanisms that are incorporated into a written warranty.
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On August 5, 2013, the Commission sought comment on the Rule's
information collection requirements.\2\ The Commission did not receive
any comments.
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\2\ See 78 FR 47317 (60-Day Federal Register Notice) and 78 FR
65649 (extended comment period until Nov. 8, 2013).
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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: Manufacturers of consumer products.
Estimated Annual Hours Burden: 116,128 hours (derived from
estimated 14,516 manufacturers x 8 hours of burden per year).
Estimated Annual Cost Burden: $15,710,000, rounded to the nearest
thousand (which is derived from $14,516,000 for legal professionals +
$713,316 for legal support + $480,189 for clerical workers).\3\
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\3\ Staff has derived an hourly wage rate ($250/hour) for legal
professionals based upon industry knowledge. The wage rates for
legal support workers ($24.57) and for clerical support ($16.54)
used in this Notice are based on recent data from the Bureau of
Labor Statistics National Compensation Survey (Mar. 29, 2013),
available at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.htm.
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Legal Professionals: (0.5) (116,128 hours) ($250/hour) =
$14,516,000
Legal Support: (0.25) (116,128 hours) ($24.57/hour) =
$713,316
Clerical Workers: (0.25) (116,128 hours) ($16.54/hour) =
$480,189
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 December 23,
2013. Write ``Warranty Rules: Paperwork Comment, FTC File No. P044403''
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/consumerwarrantypra2, 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 ``Warranty Rules:
Paperwork Comment, FTC File No. P044403'' 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 December 23,
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, 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. 2013-27982 Filed 11-21-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P