[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 202 (Monday, October 20, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 62618-62620]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-24846]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection: 
Comment Request

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (``Commission'' or ``FTC'').

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The FTC plans to conduct a study to examine consumer 
perception of fuel economy advertising. The study is part of the 
Commission's regulatory review of the Guide Concerning Fuel Economy 
Advertising for New Automobiles (``Fuel Economy Guide'' or ``Guide''). 
This is the second of two notices required under the Paperwork 
Reduction Act (``PRA'') in which the FTC seeks public comments on its 
proposed consumer research in connection with 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 November 19, 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 ``Fuel Economy Consumer 
Study, Project No. P134202'' on your comment, and file your comment 
online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/fueleconomystudypra2, 
by following the instructions on the web-based form. If you prefer to 
file your comment on paper, mail your comment to the following address: 
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania 
Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex J), Washington, DC 20580, or deliver 
your comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office 
of the Secretary, Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, 
Suite 5610 (Annex J), Washington, DC 20024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Hampton Newsome, 202-326-2889, 
Division of Enforcement, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade 
Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Mailstop CC-9528, Washington, 
DC 20580.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    The Commission issued the Guide Concerning Fuel Economy Advertising 
for New Automobiles (``Fuel Economy Guide'' or ``Guide'') (16 CFR Part 
259) in 1975 to prevent deceptive fuel economy advertising and to 
facilitate the use of fuel economy information in advertising. The 
Guide helps advertisers

[[Page 62619]]

avoid unfair or deceptive claims under Section 5 of the FTC Act.\1\ To 
accomplish this goal, the Guide advises marketers to disclose 
established Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fuel economy 
estimates (e.g., miles per gallon or ``mpg'') whenever they make any 
fuel economy claim based on those estimates. In addition, if 
advertisers make fuel economy claims based on non-EPA tests, the Guide 
directs them also to disclose EPA-derived fuel economy estimates and 
provide details about the non-EPA tests such as the source of the test, 
driving conditions, and vehicle configurations.
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    \1\ 15 U.S.C. 45(a). The Commission's industry guides, such as 
the Fuel Economy Guide, 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. The 
Guide provides the basis for voluntary abandonment of unlawful 
practices by industry members. 16 CFR Part 17. The Guide does not 
have the force and effect of law and is not independently 
enforceable. However, failure to follow industry guides may result 
in corrective action under Section 5 of the FTC Act. The Commission, 
therefore, can take action under the FTC Act if a business makes 
fuel economy marketing claims inconsistent with the Guide. In any 
such enforcement action, the Commission must prove that the act or 
practice at issue is unfair or deceptive.
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    On May 15, 2014, the Commission published a Notice (79 FR 27820) 
resuming its regulatory review of the Guide, which previously had been 
postponed \2\ pending new fuel economy labeling requirements from the 
EPA and completion of the FTC's review of its Alternative Fuel Rule (16 
CFR Part 309). On May 8, 2014, the Commission published a separate 
Notice (79 FR 26428) seeking comment under the PRA on the planned FTC 
consumer research designed to aid the regulatory review.
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    \2\ 76 FR 31467 (June 1, 2011).
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II. FTC's Proposed Study

 A. Study Description

    As part of the ongoing regulatory review, the FTC plans to conduct 
Internet-based consumer research to explore consumer perceptions of 
certain fuel economy claims to help the Commission better advise 
marketers on how to comply with the law. Specifically, using a 
treatment-effect methodology, the proposed study will compare 
participant responses regarding their understanding of a variety of 
claim types, such as general fuel economy claims (e.g., ``this car gets 
great gas mileage''), specific MPG claims (e.g., ``25 mpg''), and 
electric vehicle claims. To aid in developing possible changes to the 
Fuel Economy Guide, FTC staff will consider the consumer research 
results in conjunction with the broad range of issues raised by 
commenters during the Guide review.
    Having considered the costs and benefits of various data collection 
methods, 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 U.S. automobile consumers 
representing a broad spectrum of the U.S. adult population. 
Participants will be drawn from an Internet panel maintained by a 
commercial firm. 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. The FTC has contracted 
with Great Lakes Marketing, a consumer research firm with substantial 
experience assessing consumer communications via the Internet and 
alternative protocols, to administer the Internet study.

B. PRA Burden Analysis

    In its May 8, 2014 Notice, the FTC provided PRA burden estimates 
for the research. Staff is revising certain assumptions based on a more 
precise target population and further consultation with its contractor 
regarding the anticipated response rate. The contractor anticipates 
that approximately 50% percent of those invited to participate in the 
study will fully complete the pretest and questionnaire. Accordingly, 
the contractor might contact as many as 8,000 persons to achieve the 
study's goal of fully surveying 3,600 respondents and pretesting an 
additional 100 respondents beforehand. Staff projects that those who 
will prematurely end the process will do so in under one minute. Thus, 
this activity will total 72 hours (4,300 respondents x 1 minute).
    As before, staff estimates that respondents to the Internet 
questionnaire will require, on average, approximately 20 minutes to 
complete it. 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 3,600 respondents for 
approximately 20 minutes each for a total of 1,200 hours. Thus, 
cumulatively, for all respondents, responding to the FTC's pretest and 
questionnaire will consume approximately 1,310 hours. The cost per 
respondent should be negligible. Participation is voluntary and will 
not require any labor expenditures by respondents. There are no 
capital, start-up, operation, maintenance, or other similar costs to 
the respondents.

III. Paperwork Reduction Act

    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.\3\ As required by section 
3506(c)(2) of the PRA, the FTC published a notice seeking public 
comment on the proposed collections of information. See 79 FR 16330 
(Mar. 25, 2014). In response to the PRA notice, the Commission did not 
receive any comments. However, in response to its May 15, 2014 Notice 
announcing resumption of the regulatory review of the Guide, two 
commenters discussed the proposed research.
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    \3\ 44 U.S.C. 3502(3); 5 CFR 1320.3(c).
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    Pursuant to the OMB regulations, 5 CFR Part 1320, that implement 
the PRA, the Commission is providing this second opportunity for public 
comment. All comments should be filed as prescribed in the Request for 
Comment part of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below, and must 
be received on or before November 19, 2014.

IV. Analysis of Comments

    As noted above, in response to a separate Notice, the Commission 
received two comments related to the proposed study.
    Consumer Groups: A group of consumer, energy efficiency, and 
environmental organizations \4\ urged the FTC to test various format 
and font requirements to determine the most effective way to 
communicate fuel economy information in radio, print, television, and 
the web. Though such information may be helpful for advertisers, the 
FTC staff does not plan to devote the limited resources of this study 
to explore font and format issues. Instead, the FTC staff plans to 
focus on fundamental issues related to respondents' understanding of 
various claim types. In addition, the FTC has already provided 
substantial guidance on conspicuous disclosures in other

[[Page 62620]]

contexts.\5\ Finally, the study's online format may not provide the 
best means to draw conclusions about format and font requirements given 
different screen sizes and font settings that respondents may use.
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    \4\ #573-#00006. See http://www.ftc.gov/policy/public-comments/initiative-573.
    \5\ See, e.g., ``.com Disclosures: How to Make Effective 
Disclosures in Digital Advertising,'' FTC, March 2013, http://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/attachments/press-releases/ftc-staff-revises-online-advertising-disclosure-guidelines/130312dotcomdisclosures.pdf.
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    National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA): The NADA suggested 
that the FTC consider existing research, including that conducted by 
the EPA, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the U.S. 
Department of Energy (DOE), before conducting its own study.\6\ Staff 
has consulted with these agencies and searched for relevant studies and 
has not identified any recent studies that address the types of fuel 
economy advertising issues under consideration in the present project.
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    \6\ Comment #573-#00008. See http://www.ftc.gov/policy/public-comments/initiative-573.
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V. 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 November 19, 
2014. Write ``Fuel Economy Consumer Study, Project No. P134202'' 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 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, 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).\7\ 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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    \7\ 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/fueleconomystudypra2, 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 prefer to file your comment on paper, mail your comment to 
the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the 
Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex J), 
Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the following address: 
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Constitution Center, 
400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex J), Washington, DC 
20024.
    Comments on the information collection requirements subject to 
review under the PRA should additionally be submitted to OMB. If sent 
by U.S. mail, they should be addressed 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) 395-5806.
    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 November 19, 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.

David C. Shonka,
Principal Deputy General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2014-24846 Filed 10-17-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P