Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 211 / Tuesday, November 2, 2004 / Notices 63535

1Commission Rule 4.2(d), 16 CFR 4.2(d). The 

comment must be accompanied by an explicit 

request for confidential treatment, including the 

factual and legal basis for the request, and must 

identify the specific portions of the comment to be 

withheld from the public record. The request will 

be granted or denied by the Commission’s General 

Counsel, consistent with applicable law and the 

public interest. See Commission Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 

4.9(c).

2The Used Car Market Report 2004 (‘‘Manheim 

Market Report’’), p. 45, published by Manheim, 

6205 Peachtree Dunwoody Road, Atlanta, Georgia 

30328, citing NADA and CNW Marketing/Research. 

The Manheim Market Report estimates the number 

of dealerships in 2003 as 75,725. Staff has rounded 

that number to 76,000, which is slightly lower than 

the estimate of 80,000 dealers used in the prior 

Paperwork Reduction Act notice. The Manheim 

Market Report is available online at: http://

www.manheimnews.com/UCMR/reports/

UCMR2004dy7r9901resources/index.html.

3Manheim Market Report, p. 45. The Manheim 

Market Report estimates the number of used cars 

sold by dealers in 2003 as 29,903,000. Staff has 

rounded that number to 30,000,000, the same 

estimate used in the prior Paperwork Reduction Act 

notice.

4A relatively small number of dealers opt to 

contract with outside companies to perform the 

various tasks associated with complying with the 

Rule. Staff assumes that outside contractors would 

require about the same amount of time and incur 

similar cost as dealers to perform these tasks. 

Accordingly, the hour and cost burden totals 

shown, while referring to ‘‘dealers,’’ incorporate the 

time and cost borne by outside companies in 

performing the tasks associated with the Rule.

approximately 5 p.m. two business days 

before the meeting for a recorded 

announcement of bank and bank 

holding company applications 

scheduled for the meeting; or you may 

contact the Board’s Web site at http://

www.federalreserve.gov for an electronic 

announcement that not only lists 

applications, but also indicates 

procedural and other information about 

the meeting.

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 

System, October 29, 2004.

Robert deV. Frierson,

Deputy Secretary of the Board.

[FR Doc. 04–24582 Filed 10–29–04; 2:45 pm]

BILLING CODE 6210–01–S

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Proposed Collection; 

Comment Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission 

(‘‘FTC’’).

ACTION: Notice.

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 is seeking public 

comments on its proposal to extend 

through September 30, 2007, the current 

PRA clearance for information 

collection requirements contained in its 

Used Motor Vehicle Trade Regulation 

Rule (‘‘Used Car Rule’’ or ‘‘Rule’’). That 

clearance was scheduled to expire on 

September 30, 2004. On September 14, 

2004, the OMB granted the FTC’s 

request for a short-term extension to 

November 30, 2004, to allow for this 

second opportunity to comment.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on 

or before December 2, 2004.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are 

invited to submit written comments. 

Comments should refer to ‘‘Used Car 

Rule: Paperwork comment, P048817,’’ to 

facilitate the organization of comments. 

A comment filed in paper form should 

include this reference both in the text 

and on the envelope, and should be 

mailed or delivered to the following 

address: Federal Trade Commission/

Office of the Secretary, Room H–159 

(Annex T), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, 

NW., Washington, DC 20580. If the 

comment contains any material for 

which confidential treatment is 

requested, it must be filed in paper 

(rather than electronic) form, and the 

first page of the document must be 

clearly labeled ‘‘Confidential.’’ 1 The 

FTC is requesting that any comment 

filed in paper form be sent by courier or 

overnight service, if possible, because 

U.S. postal mail in the Washington area 

and at the Commission is subject to 

delay due to heightened security 

precautions. Comments filed in 

electronic form (except comments 

containing any confidential material) 

should be sent to the following e-mail 

address: PaperworkComment@ftc.gov.

The FTC Act and other laws the 

Commission administers permit the 

collection of public comments to 

consider and use in this proceeding as 

appropriate. All timely and responsive 

public comments will be considered by 

the Commission, and will be available 

to the public on the FTC Web site, to the 

extent practicable, at http://www.ftc.gov.

As a matter of discretion, the FTC makes 

every effort to remove home contact 

information for individuals from the 

public comments it receives before 

placing those comments on the FTC 

Web site. More information, including 

routine uses permitted by the Privacy 

Act, may be found in the FTC’s privacy 

policy, at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/

privacy.htm.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Requests for additional information or 

copies of the proposed information 

requirements should be addressed to 

John C. Hallerud, Attorney, Midwest 

Region, Federal Trade Commission, 55 

East Monroe, Suite 1860, Chicago, 

Illinois 60603, (312) 960–5634.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On July 

28, 2004, the FTC sought comment on 

the information collections associated 

with the Used Car Rule, 16 CFR part 455 

(OMB Control Number 3084–0108). See

69 FR 45059. One comment was 

received from the National Automobile 

Dealers Association (‘‘NADA’’) and is 

discussed below. Pursuant to OMB 

regulations that implement the PRA (5 

CFR part 1320), the FTC is providing 

this second opportunity for public 

comment while seeking OMB approval 

to extend the existing paperwork 

clearance for the rule. 

The Used Car Rule facilitates 

informed purchasing decisions by 

consumers by requiring used car dealers 

to disclose information about warranty 

coverage, if any, and the mechanical 

condition of used cars they offer for 

sale. The Rule requires that used car 

dealers display a Buyers Guide that, 

among other things, discloses 

information about warranty coverage on 

each used car offered for sale. 

Burden Statement 

Estimated total annual hours burden:

2,012,250 hours. 

The Rule has no recordkeeping 

requirements. The estimated burden 

relating solely to disclosure 

requirements is 2,012,250 hours. As 

explained in more detail below, this 

estimate is based on the number of used 

car dealers (approximately 76,000 2 ), the 

number of used cars sold by dealers 

annually (approximately 30,000,000 3 ), 

and the time needed to fulfill the 

information collection tasks required by 

the Rule.4 Staff revises its prior annual 

burden estimate of 1,925,000 hours to 

reflect a decrease in the approximate 

number of dealers and to reflect 

additional time that dealerships may 

need to comply with the Rule’s 

requirement that dealers complete and 

post Spanish language Buyers Guides 

when sales are conducted in Spanish.

The Rule requires that used car 

dealers display a one-page, double-sided 

Buyers Guide in the window of each 

used car they offer for sale. The 

component tasks associated with the 

Rule’s required display of Buyers 

Guides include: (1) Ordering and 

stocking Buyers Guide forms; (2) 

entering applicable data on Buyers 

Guides; (3) posting the Buyers Guides 

on vehicles; (4) making any necessary 

revisions in Buyers Guides; and (5) 

complying with the Rule’s requirements 

for sales conducted in Spanish. 

63536 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 211 / Tuesday, November 2, 2004 / Notices 

5The Buyers Guide is also available online from 

the FTC’s Web site, http://www.ftc.gov, at: http://

www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/automobiles/

index.html.

6 16 CFR 455.5.

7 Id.

8U.S. Census Bureau, ‘‘Facts for Features, 

Hispanic Heritage Month 2004: Sept. 15–Oct. 15’’

(July 15, 2004), http://www.census.gov/PressRelease/www/releases/archives/facts_for_

features_special_editions/001344.html

9 Dealers also may comply with the Rule’s 

Spanish language requirements by substituting a 

Spanish Buyers Guide when the sale will be 

conducted in Spanish. Complying in this manner 

should take roughly as long as revising a Buyers 

Guide because of changes in warranty coverage, i.e., 

approximately two minutes per sale. If dealers 

perform this task in 5% of their sales, the annual 

additional hours burden is 50,000 hours. Since 

dealers will probably use different methods to 

comply with the Rule’s Spanish language 

requirements depending upon the frequency of 

Spanish language sales in their geographic areas, 

the hours burden estimated in the text likely 

overstates the hours burden and the actual burden 

falls somewhere between the estimate in the text 

and the estimate in this footnote.

1. Ordering and Stocking Buyers 

Guides: Dealers should need no more 

than an average of one hour per year to 

obtain Buyers Guide forms, which are 

readily available from many commercial 

printers or can be produced by an office 

word-processing or desk-top publishing 

system.5 Based on a universe of 76,000 

dealers, the annual hours burden for 

producing or obtaining and stocking 

Buyers Guides is 76,000 hours.

2. Entering Data on Buyers Guides:

The amount of time required to enter 

applicable data on Buyers Guides may 

vary substantially, depending on 

whether a dealer has automated the 

process. For used cars sold ‘‘as is,’’

copying vehicle-specific data from 

dealer inventories to the Buyers Guide 

forms and checking off the ‘‘no 

warranty’’ box may take two minutes 

per vehicle if done by hand, and only 

seconds for those dealers who have 

automated the process. Staff estimates 

that this task, on average, will require 

1.5 minutes. Similarly, for used cars 

sold under warranty, the time required 

to check off the warranty box and add 

warranty information will depend on 

whether or not the dealer uses an 

automated process. Staff estimates that 

these tasks will take, on average, an 

additional one minute, for an average 

total time of 2.5 minutes for used cars 

sold under warranty. 

Based on input from industry sources, 

staff estimates that approximately 60% 

of used cars sold by dealers are sold ‘‘as 

is,’’ with the remainder sold under 

warranty. Thus, staff estimates the time 

required to enter data for used cars sold 

without warranty is 450,000 hours 

(30,000,000 × 60% × 1.5 minutes ÷ 60 

minutes/hour) and 500,000 hours for 

used cars sold under warranty 

(30,000,000 × 40% × 2.5 minutes ÷ 60 

minutes/hour), for an overall total of 

950,000 hours. 

NADA comments that ‘‘[m]any 

dealerships are small operations, with 

limited staff, so it may well take over 

the suggested 2.5 minutes per vehicle’’

to complete the Buyers Guides. As 

indicated above, however, variations 

among dealers, such as whether or not 

they use an automated process, have 

already been factored in to staff’s 

estimates of the average time per vehicle 

required to complete the forms. NADA 

also comments that ‘‘[e]ven if the 

process [of completing Buyers Guides] 

is automated, data must initially be 

entered into the system correctly, prior 

to completing and printing out’’ the 

Buyers Guides. Staff believes that the 

data necessary to complete the Buyers 

Guides is information that a dealership 

would necessarily keep for reasons 

independent of completing Buyers 

Guides, such as records for inventory 

purposes. The time needed to transfer 

such data to Buyers Guides would likely 

be negligible. Staff therefore leaves its 

estimate of this component of the 

estimated annual hours burden 

unchanged. 

3. Posting Buyers Guides on Vehicles:

Although the time required to post the 

Buyers Guides on each used car may 

vary substantially, FTC staff estimates 

that, on average, dealers will spend 1.75 

minutes per vehicle to match the correct 

Buyers Guide to the vehicle and place 

it in or on the vehicle. NADA comments 

that these tasks may take longer than the 

estimate, but does not provide an 

alternative. NADA also indicates that 

many dealers are small operations with 

limited staff but those factors would not 

affect the time per vehicle needed to 

comply with the Rule. Moreover, NADA 

comments about the time needed to 

affix Buyers Guides to vehicles, but that 

concern is overstated in light of the 

1995 amendments to the Rule that gave 

dealers more flexibility in posting 

Buyers Guides. Staff therefore retains its 

prior annual hours burden of this 

component. For the 30,000,000 vehicles 

sold, the burden associated with this 

task is 875,000 hours. To the extent 

dealers are able to integrate this process 

into other activities performed in their 

ordinary course of business, this 

estimate likely overstates the actual 

burden. 

4. Revising Buyers Guides as 

Necessary: If negotiations between 

buyer and seller over warranty coverage 

produce a sale on terms other than those 

originally entered on the Buyers Guide, 

the dealer must revise the Guide to 

reflect the actual terms of sale. 

According to the rulemaking record, 

bargaining over warranty coverage 

rarely occurs. NADA comments that it 

believes that negotiations over warranty 

coverage are not a rare occurrence but 

does not quantify the frequency of such 

negotiations or describe the basis for its 

belief. Therefore, at this time, staff 

declines to depart from the original 

rulemaking record’s conclusions and 

retains its prior estimate of this 

component of the annual hours burden. 

Accordingly, allowing for revision in 

2% of sales, at two minutes per revision, 

staff estimates that dealers will spend 

20,000 hours annually revising Buyers 

Guides. 

5. Spanish Language Sales: The Rule 

requires that contract disclosures be 

made in Spanish if a sale is conducted 

in Spanish.6 The Rule permits the 

posting of both an English language and 

Spanish language Buyers Guide to 

comply with this requirement.7 NADA 

comments that the increasing number of 

Spanish-speaking customers in many 

communities may increase the annual 

hours burden, because ‘‘dealers often 

display two Buyers Guides on all of 

their vehicles, one in English and one in 

Spanish, to avoid the possibility of a 

compliance violation.’’

Census figures suggest that 

approximately 5% of the United States 

population speaks Spanish at home, 

without also speaking fluent English.8

Staff therefore projects that 

approximately 5% of used car sales will 

be conducted in Spanish. Assuming 

dealers choose to comply with the Rule 

by posting both English and Spanish 

Buyers Guides, then there will be the 

additional burden of completing and 

posting a second Buyers Guide for 5% 

of sales. The annual hours burden 

associated with completing and posting 

Buyers Guides is 1,825,000 hours 

(950,000 hours for entering data on 

buyers guides + 875,000 hours for 

posting); thus, staff estimates the 

additional burden due to Spanish 

language sales is 91,250 hours (5% ×

1,825,000 hours).9 The other 

components of the annual hours burden, 

i.e., purchasing Buyers Guides and 

revising the guides for changes in 

warranty coverage, would remain 

unchanged.

Estimated annual cost burden:

$30,632,000 consisting of $21,632,000 

in labor costs and $9,000,000 in nonlabor costs. 

Labor costs: Labor costs are derived 

by applying appropriate hourly cost 

figures to the burden hours described 

above. Staff has determined that all of 

the tasks associated with ordering 

forms, entering data on Buyers Guides, 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 211 / Tuesday, November 2, 2004 / Notices 63537

posting Buyers Guides on vehicles, and 

revising them as needed are typically 

done by clerical or low-level 

administrative personnel. Using a 

clerical cost rate of $10.75 per hour and 

an estimate of 2,012,250 burden hours 

for disclosure requirements, the total 

labor cost burden would be 

approximately $21,632,000 (rounded to 

the nearest thousand). 

Capital or other non-labor costs: The 

cost of the Buyers Guide form itself is 

estimated to be 30 cents per form, so 

that forms for 30 million vehicles would 

cost dealers $9,000,000. In making this 

estimate, staff conservatively assumes 

that all dealers will purchase preprinted 

forms instead of producing them 

internally, although dealers may 

produce them at minimal expense using 

current office automation technology. 

Capital and start-up costs associated 

with the Rule are minimal.

William E. Kovacic, 

General Counsel.

[FR Doc. 04–24426 Filed 11–1–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6750–01–P

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

Granting of Request for Early 

Termination of the Waiting Period 

Under the Premerger Notification 

Rules 

Section 7A of the Clayton Act, 15 

U.S.C. 18a, as added by Title II of the 

Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust 

Improvements Act of 1976, requires 

persons contemplating certain mergers 

or acquisitions to give the Federal Trade 

Commission and the Assistant Attorney 

General advance notice and to wait 

designated periods before 

consummation of such plans. Section 

7A(b)(2) of the Act permits the agencies, 

in individual cases, to terminate this 

waiting period prior to its expiration 

and requires that notice of this action be 

published in the Federal Register. 

The following transactions were 

granted early termination of the waiting 

period provided by law and the 

premerger notification rules. The grants 

were made by the Federal Trade 

Commission and the Assistant Attorney 

General for the Antitrust Division of the 

Department of Justice. Neither agency 

intends to take any action with respect 

to these proposed acquisitions during 

the applicable waiting period.

Trans# Acquiring Acquired Entities 

Transactions Granted Early Termination—09/27/2004

20041211 ....................................... Parker-Hannifin Corporation ......... Sporlan Valve Company ............... Sporlan Valve Company. 

20041343 ....................................... GTCR Fund VII L.P ...................... Electronic Data Systems Corporation.EDS Information Services, L.L.C. 

20041379 ....................................... The Laird Group PLC ................... Centurion Wireless Technologies, 

Inc.

Centurion Wireless Technologies, 

Inc. 

20041384 ....................................... ARM Holdings plc ......................... Artisan Components, Inc .............. Artisan Components, Inc. 

20041397 ....................................... Wind Point Partners V, L.P .......... United Subcontractors, Inc ........... United Subcontractors, Inc. 

20041401 ....................................... LR2 AIV, L.P ................................. Global Industries, Ltd ................... Global Industries, Ltd. 

20041402 ....................................... First Reserve Fund X., L.P ........... Ingersoll-Rand Company Limited Dresser-Rand Canada, Inc., 

Dresser-Rand S.A.-France, Ingersoll-Rand Company Limited. 

20041404 ....................................... KeyCorp ........................................ James J. Pappas .......................... Ariel Truss (Hawaii) Inc., Honolulu 

Wood Testing Co., Ltd. 

20041405 ....................................... Mitsubishi Corporation .................. Royal Dutch Petroleum Company Wildflower Development LLC. 

20041407 ....................................... Metalurgica Gerdau, S.A .............. Cargill, Incorporated ..................... North Star Recycling Company, 

North Star Steel Company, 

North Star Steel Kentucky, Inc., 

North Star Steel Texas, Inc. 

20041408 ....................................... Inovis International, Inc ................ QRS Corporation .......................... QRS Corporation. 

Transactions Granted Early Termination—09/29/2004

20040416 ....................................... Dan L. Duncan ............................. El Paso Corporation ..................... El Paso Hydrocarbons, L.P., El 

Paso NGL Marketing Company, 

L.P. 

20040417 ....................................... Dan L. Duncan ............................. GulfTerra Energy Partners, L.P .... GulfTerra Energy Partners, L.P. 

20041385 ....................................... MDS Inc ........................................ Applera Corporation ..................... Applera Corporation. 

20041387 ....................................... Serologicals Corporation .............. Upstate Group, Inc ....................... Upstate Group, Inc. 

20041447 ....................................... ConocoPhillips .............................. Open Joint-Stock Company Oil 

Company LUKOIL.

Open Joint-Stock Company Oil 

LUKOIL. 

20041456 ....................................... ConocoPhillips .............................. Open Joint-Stock Company Oil 

Company LUKOIL.

Open Joint-Stock Company Oil 

Company LUKOIL. 

Transactions Granted Early Termination—09/30/2004

20041427 ....................................... Morgan Stanley ............................ NTELOS, Inc ................................ NTELOS, Inc. 

Transactions Granted Early Termination—10/04/2004

20041372 ....................................... Parker-Hannifin Corporation ......... AEC Holdings, Inc ........................ AEC Holdings, Inc. 

20041380 ....................................... Adolph Coors, Jr. Trust ................ Molson Inc .................................... Molson Inc. 

20041415 ....................................... Cisco Systems, Inc ....................... Netsolve, Incorporated ................. Netsolve, Incorporated. 

20041416 ....................................... Federal Express Corporation ....... Delta Air Lines, Inc ....................... Delta Air Lines, Inc. 

20041417 ....................................... 2003 Riverside Capital Appreciation Fund L.P.Mark J. Lowe ................................ Progressive Stamping & Plating. 

20041418 ....................................... Jefferies Group, Inc ...................... Jefferies Group, Inc ...................... Bonds Direct Securities LLC. 

20041420 ....................................... American Capital Strategies, Ltd .. Roark Carvel LLC ......................... Focus Brands, Inc.