[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 221 (Friday, November 17, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54342-54344]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-24915]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB
Review; Comment Request
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'').
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 required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA''). The FTC
seeks public comments on proposed information requests sent pursuant to
compulsory process to a combined ten or more of the largest domestic
cigarette manufacturers and smokeless tobacco manufacturers. The
information sought would include, among other things, data on annual
sales and marketing expenditures. The current FTC clearance from the
Office of Management and Budget (``OMB'') to conduct such information
collection expires January 31, 2018. The Commission intends to ask OMB
for renewed three-year clearance to collect this information.
DATES: Comments on the proposed information requests must be received
on or before December 18, 2017.
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: ``Tobacco Reports:
Paperwork Comment, FTC File No. P054507'' on your comment, and file the
comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/tobaccoreportspra 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 collection of information should be addressed to
Michael Ostheimer, Division of Advertising Practices, Bureau of
Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue
NW., Mailstop CC-10603, Washington, DC 20580. Telephone: (202) 326-
2699.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: FTC Cigarette and Smokeless Tobacco Data Collection.
OMB Control Number: 3084-0134.
Type of Review: Extension of currently approved collection.
On August 10, 2017, the Commission sought comment on the
information collection requirements associated with the Cigarette and
Smokeless Tobacco Data Collection. 82 FR 37440 (``August 10, 2017
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 a
second opportunity for the public to comment while seeking OMB approval
to renew the existing clearance for the information the FTC proposes to
seek from the largest domestic cigarette manufacturers and smokeless
tobacco manufacturers.
In response to the August 10, 2017 Notice, the Commission received
comments from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (``CTFK'') and Altria
Client Services (``Altria'').
The CTFK comment specifically noted the utility and importance of
the Commission's Cigarette and Smokeless Tobacco Reports, and urged the
agency to continue collecting and reporting industry sales and
marketing expenditure data, which CTFK stated provide ``critical data
to researchers, policymakers, advocates and the general public.'' CTFK
additionally observed:
The FTC is currently the primary source for data on cigarette
and smokeless tobacco companies' marketing and promotional
expenditures. No other agency collects and publishes such
information directly from the companies, making the FTC reports the
most accurate and reliable assessment of tobacco marketing and
promotion expenditures available.
CTFK at 1.
CTFK, however, suggested certain modifications to the Commission's
reports. Specifically, CTFK recommended that the Commission: (1) Report
separately price discount expenditures for retailers and wholesalers;
(2) clarify the definitions of certain expenditure categories--
specifically, in which category coupons that consumers obtain online
are to be counted; (3) report data on a company-
[[Page 54343]]
specific or brand-specific basis, rather than on a fully-aggregated
basis; (4) require manufacturers to report expenditures related to
corporate sponsorships and advertisements; and (5) provide an option to
download the published report data in spreadsheet format. Id. at 2.
The Commission agrees that collecting and reporting separately
price discount expenditures for retailers and wholesalers is useful.
Beginning with its 6(b) Orders for 2014, the Commission has been
separately collecting and reporting information about price discounts
paid to retailers and price discounts paid to wholesalers.
The Commission will clarify in future Orders that expenditures on
coupons delivered online should be reported together with coupons
delivered by other means. The full impact of couponing by the major
cigarette and smokeless tobacco manufacturers can only be seen if
expenditures for all coupons are reported together, regardless of how
those coupons are delivered to consumers.
Regarding CTFK's suggestion that data be reported on other than a
fully-aggregated, nationwide basis, the cigarette and smokeless tobacco
companies assert that those data are confidential and, as CTFK
acknowledges, the Commission cannot publicly release trade secrets or
certain commercial or financial information. Id. at 2 n.2.
As for requiring manufacturers to report expenditures related to
corporate sponsorships and advertisements, the Commission already
requires the recipients of its 6(b) Orders to report certain
expenditures made in the name of the company, rather than any of its
brands.\1\ However, the Commission does not include those data in its
Cigarette and Smokeless Tobacco Reports. The Commission will consider
whether those expenditures should be reported in the future or whether
to cease collecting this information.
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\1\ Both the cigarette and smokeless tobacco Orders require the
recipients to report expenditures on ``public entertainment events
(including, but not limited to, concerts and sporting events)
bearing or otherwise displaying the name of the Company or any
variation thereof but not bearing or otherwise displaying the name,
logo, or an image of any portion of the package'' of any of its
cigarettes or smokeless tobacco products, or otherwise referring to
those products.
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The Commission agrees that it would be helpful to provide an option
to download the published report data in spreadsheet format and will
begin doing so with its next published reports.
Altria stated that the Commission should no longer collect any
information from cigarette and smokeless tobacco manufacturers ``in
light of the Food and Drug Administration's . . . extensive, active
regulatory authority over tobacco products under the Family Smoking
Prevention and Tobacco Control Act,'' calling such collections
``superfluous'' and ``unnecessary burdens.'' Altria at 1, 3. Altria
contends that the FTC's most recent requests seek ``not only
information that the companies already produce to FDA, but also
information unrelated to the advertising and promotion of tobacco
products.'' Id. at 3-4. It gives the following examples:
(a) cigarette design data, including cigarette length, style,
flavor, and filter type; (b) constituent data, including nicotine,
carbon monoxide, and tar; (c) lists of cigarettes first sold or
discontinued in 2016; and (d) lists of other product information,
including brand varieties, pack size, and package type.
Id. at 4 n.15. Altria also suggests that the FTC has recently expanded
its requests to seek information on expenditures from parent companies
that do not sell or advertise tobacco products. Id. at 3.
The FTC staff and FDA staff have a long tradition of working
together on the many areas where the two agencies share jurisdiction.
The FDA is not collecting cigarette or smokeless tobacco sales and
marketing expenditure data like that required by the Commission's 6(b)
Orders, so there is no overlap or duplication with respect to such
data. Moreover, to the extent there might be some overlap in the
collection of information about whether brand styles of cigarettes are
filtered or unfiltered, menthol or non-menthol, and their cigarette
length, the Commission needs those data so it can combine them with
sales information for each brand style in order to report the
percentages of cigarettes sold by the leading manufacturers falling
into each product type category (e.g., 26% of the cigarettes sold by
these manufacturers in 2015 were menthol). FDA is not collecting
cigarette sales information, so it cannot calculate sales percentages
by product types. The Commission intends to continue collecting
cigarette and smokeless tobacco sales and marketing expenditure data,
together with cigarette length, flavor, and filter information. To the
extent that in the future the FDA duplicates the FTC's data collection,
the FTC can modify or cease its collection.
Until 2000, the Commission collected cigarette tar, nicotine, and
carbon monoxide yields and published that information by brand style.
Because of concerns that the yield information was misleading
consumers, the Commission ceased publishing that information, but it
has continued to collect tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide yields to
the extent recipients of the 6(b) Orders possess it, and the Commission
releases the data to researchers in response to Freedom of Information
Act requests. In recent years, however, there have been very few
requests for the data. Given that the Commission no longer publishes
tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide reports and the limited interest in
these data, the Commission intends to cease collecting tar, nicotine,
and carbon monoxide yield data.
There are other information fields that the Commission no longer
needs to collect, including information about cigarette package type,
cigarette package size, cigarette styles, and whether a cigarette
variety's tar yield and its nicotine yield are disclosed on its
package. The Commission intends to continue to collect UPC-Codes in
order to distinguish one variety from another, but does not need any
other variety descriptors beyond cigarette length, flavor, and filter
information. The Commission also no longer needs lists of cigarettes
first sold or discontinued in a calendar year.
Contrary to Altria's suggestion, the FTC did not recently expand
its requests to seek information from parent companies. More than a
decade ago, the Commission began directing its orders to the ultimate
domestic parents of the cigarette and smokeless tobacco manufacturers
because some parent companies owned more than one subsidiary selling
those products and the Commission wanted to ensure that no relevant
data from affiliated companies went unreported. Moreover, the 6(b)
Orders ask several questions about whether the recipient engages in
certain practices, such as paying for cigarette or smokeless tobacco
product placement in movies, and the Commission wants to be sure that
such practices by any related company are reported, even if that
company does not itself sell cigarette or smokeless tobacco products.
The Commission intends to continuing directing its 6(b) Orders to the
parent companies of the leading cigarette and smokeless tobacco
manufacturers.
Burden Statement: \2\
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\2\ The details and assumptions underlying these estimates were
set forth in the August 10, 2017 Federal Register notice.
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Estimated Annual Burden: 1,980 hours.\3\
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\3\ The Commission intends to use this PRA clearance renewal to
collect information from the companies concerning their marketing
and sales activities for the years 2017, 2018, and 2019. The
Commission expects to issue compulsory process orders seeking this
information annually, but it is possible that orders might not be
issued in any given year and that orders seeking information for two
years would be issued the next year. The figures set forth in this
notice for the estimated hours and labor costs associated with this
information collection represent average annual burden over the
course of the prospective PRA clearance.
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[[Page 54344]]
Estimated Number of Respondents: 15 maximum.
These estimates include any time spent by separately incorporated
subsidiaries and other entities affiliated with the ultimate parent
companies that receive the information requests.
Estimated Average Burden per Year per Respondent: 180 hours.
(a) Information requests to the four largest cigarette companies
and five largest smokeless tobacco companies, at a per company average
each year of 180 hours = 1,620 hours, cumulatively, per year; and
(b) Information requests to six additional respondents, of smaller
size, at a per company average each year of 60 hours = 360 hours,
cumulatively, per year.
Estimated Annual Labor Cost: $198,000.
Estimated Capital or Other Non-Labor Cost: De minimis.
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 18, 2017. Write ``Tobacco Reports: Paperwork Comment,
FTC File No. P054507'' 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.
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, or to send them 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/tobaccoreportspra, 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 ``Tobacco Reports:
Paperwork Comment, FTC File No. P054507'' 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 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.
Because your comment will be placed on the publicly accessible FTC
Web site at https://www.ftc.gov/, you are solely responsible for making
sure that your comment does not include any sensitive or confidential
information. In particular, your comment should not include any
sensitive personal information, such as your or anyone else'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, such as medical records or other
individually identifiable health information. In addition, your comment
should not include any ``trade secret or any commercial or financial
information which . . . is privileged or confidential''--as provided by
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)--including in particular competitively sensitive
information such as costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas,
patterns, devices, manufacturing processes, or customer names.
Comments containing material for which confidential treatment is
requested must be filed in paper form, must be clearly labeled
``Confidential,'' and must comply with FTC Rule 4.9(c). 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). Your comment will be kept
confidential only if the General Counsel grants your request in
accordance with the law and the public interest. Once your comment has
been posted on the public FTC Web site--as legally required by FTC Rule
4.9(b)--we cannot redact or remove your comment from the FTC Web site,
unless you submit a confidentiality request that meets the requirements
for such treatment under FTC Rule 4.9(c), and the General Counsel
grants that request.
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 18,
2017. For information on the Commission's privacy policy, including
routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, see https://www.ftc.gov/site-information/privacy-policy.
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 are subject to
delays due to heightened security precautions. Thus, comments instead
can also be sent via email to [email protected].
David C. Shonka,
Acting General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2017-24915 Filed 11-16-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P