[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 57 (Tuesday, March 25, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16330-16331]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-06448]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Agency Information Collection Activities;Proposed Collection;
Comment Request
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (``Commission'' or ``FTC'').
ACTION: Notice and request for public comment.
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SUMMARY: The FTC plans to conduct a study to examine consumer
perception of environmental marketing claims. This is the first of two
notices required under the Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA'') in which
the FTC seeks public comments on its proposed research before
requesting Office of Management and Budget (``OMB'') review of, and
clearance for, the collection of information discussed herein.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before May 27, 2014.
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 ``Green Marketing
Consumer Perception Study, Project No. P954501'' on your comment, and
file your comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/organicstudypra, 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: Laura Koss, Attorney, 202-326-2890, or
Hampton Newsome, Attorney, 202-326-2889, Division of Enforcement,
Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Commission's Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing
Claims (``Green Guides'' or ``Guides'') (16 CFR part 260) help
marketers avoid making unfair and deceptive environmental claims.\1\
The Guides outline general principles that apply to all environmental
marketing claims and provide guidance regarding specific categories of
such claims.\2\ These categories include: General environmental benefit
claims such as ``environmentally friendly''; degradable claims;
compostable claims; recyclable claims; recycled content claims; source
reduction claims; refillable claims; and ``free-of'' claims. The Green
Guides explain how reasonable consumers are likely to interpret claims
within these categories. The Guides also describe the basic elements
necessary to substantiate claims and present options for qualifying
them to avoid deception.\3\ The illustrative qualifications provide
``safe harbors'' for marketers who want certainty, but do not represent
the only permissible approaches. The Guides do not provide specific
guidance regarding ``organic'' claims.
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\1\ The Commission issued the Green Guides in 1992 (57 FR 36363)
and subsequently revised them in 1996 (61 FR 53311), 1998 (63 FR
24240), and 2012 (77FR 62121).
\2\ 15 U.S.C. 45(a). The Commission's industry guides, such as
the Green Guides, are administrative interpretations of the
application of Section 5 of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 45(a) to
advertising claims. The Commission issues industry guides to provide
guidance for the public to conform with legal requirements. These
guides provide the basis for voluntary abandonment of unlawful
practices by industry members. 16 CFR part 17. The Guides do not
have the force and effect of law and are not independently
enforceable. However, the Commission can take action under the FTC
Act if a business makes environmental marketing claims inconsistent
with the Guides. In any such enforcement action, the Commission must
prove that the act or practice at issue is unfair or deceptive.
\3\ The Guides do not, however, establish standards for
environmental performance or prescribe testing protocols.
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II. The FTC's Proposed Study
A. Study Description
The FTC plans to conduct Internet-based consumer research to
explore consumer perceptions of certain environmental marketing claims,
such as ``organic'' and ``pre-consumer recycled content,'' to enhance
the Commission's understanding of how consumers interpret such claims.
The proposed study will compare participant responses regarding the
meaning of such environmental marketing claims across different product
variations. Specifically, using a treatment-effect methodology, the
study will examine whether respondents viewing organic and recycled
content claims believe that these products have particular
environmental benefits or attributes depending on the context in which
they are presented. For ``recycled content'' claims, the study will
present questions about products produced with materials sourced under
different scenarios and compare participant responses to those
scenarios. Such materials described in the questions may come from
products recycled by consumers or may derive from scraps that are left
over from manufacturing other products and reprocessed to varying
degrees. The study will also
[[Page 16331]]
examine how respondents understand the term ``organic'' in a variety of
contexts. The FTC staff will use the study results, along with other
information such as public comments, in considering whether to
recommend that the Commission propose revisions to the Green Guides.
Having considered the costs and benefits of various data collection
methods, the FTC staff has concluded that an Internet panel with
nationwide coverage will provide the most efficient way to collect data
to meet the research objectives within a feasible budget. Thus, the FTC
proposes to collect responses from a broad spectrum of the U.S. adult
population. Participants will be drawn from an Internet panel
maintained by a commercial firm that operates the panel. All
participation will be voluntary. While the results will not be
generalizable to the U.S. population, the Commission believes that they
will provide useful insights into consumer understanding of the claims
being considered.
B. PRA Burden Analysis
Staff estimates that respondents will require, on average, 20
minutes to complete the questionnaire. Staff will pretest the
questionnaire with approximately 100 respondents to ensure that all
questions are easily understood. Allowing for an extra three minutes
for questions unique to the pretest, the pretest will total
approximately 38 hours, cumulatively (100 respondents x 23 minutes
each). Once the pretest is completed, the FTC plans to seek information
from up to 8,000 respondents for approximately 20 minutes each. Thus,
respondents will cumulatively take approximately 2,700 hours. The cost
per respondent should be negligible. Participation will not require
start up, capital, or labor expenditures.
III. Request for Comment
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.\4\ 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 regulations noted herein.
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\4\ 44 U.S.C. 3502(3); 5 CFR 1320.3(c).
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Pursuant to Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, the FTC invites
comments on: (1) Whether the reporting 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.
You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before May 27, 2014.
Write ``Green Marketing Consumer Perception Study, Project No.
P954501'' 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, like 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 have to follow the procedure explained
in FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).\5\ Your comment will be kept
confidential only if the FTC General Counsel grants your request in
accordance with the law and the public interest.
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\5\ 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 CFR 4.9(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. To make sure that the Commission considers your
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/organicstudypra, 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 ``Green Marketing Consumer
Perception Study, Project No. P954501'' 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 May 27, 2014. 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.
By direction of the Commission.
Donald S. Clark,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2014-06448 Filed 3-24-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P