[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 163 (Monday, August 24, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51258-51260]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-20800]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
[File No. 152 3193]
SteriMed Medical Waste Solutions; Analysis of Proposed Consent
Order To Aid Public Comment
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.
ACTION: Proposed Consent Agreement.
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SUMMARY: The consent agreement in this matter settles alleged
violations of federal law prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or
practices. The attached Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes both
the allegations in the draft complaint and the terms of the consent
order--embodied in the consent agreement--that would settle these
allegations.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before September 16, 2015.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/sterimedconsent online or on paper, by
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write ``SteriMed Medical Waste
Solutions--Consent Agreement; File No. 152 3193'' on your comment and
file your comment online at https://
[[Page 51259]]
ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/sterimedconsent by following the
instructions on the Web-based form. If you prefer to file your comment
on paper, write ``SteriMed Medical Waste Solutions--Consent Agreement;
File No. 152 3193'' on your comment and on the envelope, and mail your
comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of
the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex D),
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 D), Washington, DC
20024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Emily Robinson, FTC Southwest Region,
((214) 979-9386), 1999 Bryan Street, Suite 2150, Dallas, TX 75201.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to Section 6(f) of the Federal
Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 2.34, 16 CFR 2.34,
notice is hereby given that the above-captioned consent agreement
containing consent order to cease and desist, having been filed with
and accepted, subject to final approval, by the Commission, has been
placed on the public record for a period of thirty (30) days. The
following Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes the terms of the
consent agreement, and the allegations in the complaint. An electronic
copy of the full text of the consent agreement package can be obtained
from the FTC Home Page (for August 17, 2015), on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.ftc.gov/os/actions.shtm.
You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before September 16,
2015. Write ``SteriMed Medical Waste Solutions--Consent Agreement; File
No. 152 3193'' 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).\1\ 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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\1\ 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/sterimedconsent 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 ``SteriMed Medical Waste
Solutions--Consent Agreement; File No. 152 3193'' on your comment and
on the envelope, and mail your comment to the following address:
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania
Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex D), 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 D), Washington, DC 20024. 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 September 16, 2015. 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.
Analysis of Proposed Consent Order To Aid Public Comment
The Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'') has
accepted, subject to final approval, a consent agreement applicable to
SteriMed Medical Waste Solutions.
The proposed consent order has been placed on the public record for
thirty (30) days for receipt of comments by interested persons.
Comments received during this period will become part of the public
record. After thirty (30) days, the Commission will again review the
agreement and the comments received, and will decide whether it should
withdraw from the agreement and take appropriate action or make final
the agreement's proposed order.
This matter concerns alleged false or misleading representations
that SteriMed Medical Waste Solutions made to consumers concerning its
participation in the Safe Harbor privacy framework agreed upon by the
U.S. and the European Union (``EU'') (``U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework''
or ``Safe Harbor Framework''). The Safe Harbor Framework allows U.S.
companies to transfer data outside the EU consistent with EU law. To
join the Safe Harbor Framework, a company must self-certify to the U.S.
Department of Commerce (``Commerce'') that it complies with a set of
principles and related requirements that have been deemed by the
European Commission as providing ``adequate'' privacy protection. These
principles include notice, choice, onward transfer, security, data
integrity, access, and enforcement. Commerce maintains a public Web
site, www.export.gov/safeharbor, where it posts the names of companies
that have self-certified to the Safe Harbor Framework. The listing of
companies indicates whether their self-certification is ``current'' or
``not current.'' Companies are required to re-certify every year in
order to retain their status as ``current'' members of the Safe Harbor
Framework.
[[Page 51260]]
SteriMed Medical Waste Solutions develops and manufactures on-site
chemical-based medical waste processors. According to the Commission's
complaint, since at least January 2015, SteriMed Medical Waste
Solutions set forth on its Web site, http://www.sterimedsystems.com/privacy.html, privacy policies and statements about its practices,
including statements related to its participation in the U.S.-EU Safe
Harbor Framework.
The Commission's complaint alleges that SteriMed Medical Waste
Solutions falsely represented that it was a participant in the U.S.-EU
Safe Harbor Framework when, in fact, SteriMed Medical Waste Solutions
was never a participant in the Safe Harbor Framework. Commerce has
never included the company on its public Web site.
Part I of the proposed order prohibits SteriMed Medical Waste
Solutions from making misrepresentations about its membership in any
privacy or security program sponsored by the government or any other
self-regulatory or standard-setting organization, including, but not
limited to, the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework and the U.S.-Swiss Safe
Harbor Framework.
Parts II through VI of the proposed order are reporting and
compliance provisions. Part II requires SteriMed Medical Waste
Solutions to retain documents relating to its compliance with the Order
for a five-year period. Part III requires dissemination of the order
now and in the future to persons with responsibilities relating to the
subject matter of the order. Part IV ensures the notification to the
FTC of changes in corporate status. Part V mandates that SteriMed
Medical Waste Solutions submit an initial compliance report to the FTC,
and make available to the FTC subsequent reports. Part VI is a
provision ``sunsetting'' the order after twenty (20) years, with
certain exceptions.
The purpose of this analysis is to facilitate public comment on the
proposed order. It is not intended to constitute an official
interpretation of the proposed complaint or order or to modify the
order's terms in any way.
By direction of the Commission.
Donald S. Clark,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2015-20800 Filed 8-21-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P