[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 142 (Monday, July 25, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48421-48423]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-17474]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB
Review; Comment Request
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (``Commission'' or ``FTC'').
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The information collection requirements described below will
be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (``OMB'') for
review, as
[[Page 48422]]
required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA''). The FTC is seeking
public comments on its proposal to extend for an additional three years
the current PRA clearance for information collection requirements in
its Telemarketing Sales Rule (``TSR''). That clearance expires on
August 31, 2016.
DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before August 24, 2016.
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 ``TSR PRA Comment, FTC
File No. P094400'' on your comment, and file your comment online at
https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/tsrrulepra2 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: Requests for additional information or
copies of the proposed information requirements for the TSR should be
addressed by mail to Craig Tregillus, Staff Attorney, Division of
Marketing Practices, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade
Commission, Room CC-8607, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC
20580, or by telephone to (202) 326-2970.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On April 14, 2016, the Commission requested
public comment on the information collection requirements and related
PRA burden estimates associated with the TSR. 81 FR 22082 (``April 14,
2016 Notice''). Pursuant to the OMB regulations, 5 CFR part 1320, that
implement the PRA, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq., the FTC is providing this
second opportunity for public comment while seeking OMB approval to
renew clearance for those information collection requirements.
In response to its prior request for public comment, the Commission
received ten comments, most of which were either non-germane or not
directly responsive to the nature of the public comments sought. As
required by the PRA, the Commission had sought public comments
specifically on the following:
(1) Whether the recordkeeping, disclosure, and reporting
requirements are necessary, including whether the resulting information
will be practically useful; (2) the accuracy of the FTC's burden
estimates, including whether the methodology and assumptions used are
valid; (3) how to improve the quality, utility, and clarity of the
disclosure requirements; and (4) how to minimize the burden of
providing the required information to consumers.
None of the public comments directly addressed the above and,
lacking independent reason thus far to revise its burden estimates, the
FTC will submit for OMB review, contemporaneous with this published
Notice, its previously published burden estimates on the TSR's
disclosure, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements. For more details
about the Rule requirements, the background behind these information
collection provisions, and the FTC's burden estimates and methodology
behind them, see the April 14, 2016 Notice.
To clarify for purposes of receiving public comments for this
second Notice, the disclosure, recordkeeping, and reporting
requirements for which the Commission sought public comment concern
such requirements imposed upon telemarketers and/or other sellers who
are subject to, and not otherwise exempted under, the TSR. Some types
of businesses are not covered by the TSR even though they conduct
telemarketing campaigns that may involve some interstate telephone
calls to sell goods or services. These three types of entities are not
subject to the FTC's jurisdiction, and not covered by the TSR:
Banks, federal credit unions, and federal savings and
loans
common carriers--such as long-distance telephone companies
and airlines--when they are engaging in common carrier activity
non-profit organizations--those entities that are not
organized to carry on business for their own, or their members,'
profit.
The above types of entities are not covered by the TSR because they
are specifically exempt from the FTC's jurisdiction. Nevertheless, any
other for profit individual or company that contracts with one of these
three types of entities to provide telemarketing services must comply
with the TSR. Moreover, some types of calls also are not covered by the
TSR, regardless of whether the entity making or receiving the call is
covered. These include:
Unsolicited calls from consumers
calls placed by consumers in response to a catalog
business-to-business calls that do not involve retail
sales of nondurable office or cleaning supplies
calls made in response to general media advertising (with
some important exceptions)
calls made in response to direct mail advertising (with
some important exceptions)
Political campaign calls protected by the First Amendment.
Public comments on the April 14, 2016 Notice ranged from a
complaint about receiving repeated unsolicited ``junk'' telefaxes--to a
complaint that the FTC fails to enforce the TSR--to a suggestion that
the FTC consider ways to pro-actively thwart unsolicited calls to
mobile phones in a vein similar to which ``NoMoRobo'' (http://www.nomorobo.com) blocks some unwanted robocalls (to date, Nomorobo
works only with some landline carriers, and not with cell phones)--to a
suggestion, more generally, ``that better automation [be devised] in
addressing the illegal calling issue.''
In response, the FTC notes that Federal Communication Commission
rules, not the FTC's TSR, address ``junk'' telefaxes. (See https://www.fcc.gov/stop-unwanted-calls.) To date, the FTC has brought at least
105 enforcement actions against companies and telemarketers for Do Not
Call, abandoned call, robocall (i.e., automated dialing technology to
make calls that deliver prerecorded messages), and Registry violations
(https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/do-not-call-registry/enforcement). A variety of new technologies has increased the number of
illegal telemarketing calls made to telephone numbers on the Registry.
The net effect of these new technologies is that individuals and
companies who do not care about complying with the Registry or other
telemarketing laws are able to make more illegal telemarketing calls
cheaply and in a manner that makes it difficult for the FTC and other
law enforcement agencies to find them. The FTC continues to solicit
ideas and assistance to combat illegal automated calls: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2015/03/ftc-announces-new-robocall-contests-combat-illegal-automated. Moreover, the FTC in tandem
with other law enforcement agencies continues to bring actions against
illegal telemarketing calls: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/do-not-call-registry/robocalls. The FTC also continues to
track how technology affects the Registry and the consumers and
telemarketers who access it.
To reiterate, pursuant to its obligations under the PRA, the FTC
seeks public comment on the necessity of its TSR recordkeeping,
disclosure,
[[Page 48423]]
and reporting requirements, whether the information resulting from
those requirements will be practically useful, the accuracy of the
FTC's associated PRA burden estimates, and how to improve the quality,
utility, and clarity of the TSR's disclosure requirements while also
minimizing the burden on affected entities to provide the required
information to consumers.
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 24, 2016. Write ``TSR PRA Comment, FTC File No. P094400''
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 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).\1\ 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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\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/tsrrulepra2, by following the instructions on the web-based form.
When 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 ``TSR PRA Comment, FTC
File No. P094400'' on your comment and on the envelope, 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. If possible, submit your paper comment to the Commission by
courier or overnight service.
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 24,
2016. For information on the Commission's privacy policy, including
routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, see http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.
Comments on the recordkeeping, disclosure, and reporting
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.
David C. Shonka,
Acting General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2016-17474 Filed 7-22-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P