[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 13 (Friday, January 19, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3659-3661]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-01001]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

[File No. P072108]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'') is 
seeking public comments on its proposal to extend for an additional 
three years the current Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA'') clearance for 
information collection requirements contained in the Commission's rules 
and regulations under the Textile Fiber Products Identification Act 
(``Textile Rules''). That clearance expires on June 30, 2024.

DATES: Comments must be filed by March 19, 2024.

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 ``Textile Rules; PRA 
Comment: FTC File No. P072108'' on your comment, and file your comment 
online at https://www.regulations.gov 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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jock K. Chung, Attorney, Division of 
Enforcement, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 
Mail Code CC-9528, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20580, 
(202) 326-2984.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title of Collection: Rules and Regulations under the Textile Fiber 
Products Identification Act, 16 CFR part 303.
    OMB Control Number: 3084-0101.
    Type of Review: Extension without change of currently approved 
collection.
    Abstract: The Textile Fiber Products Identification Act (Textile 
Act) \1\ prohibits the misbranding and false advertising of textile 
fiber products. The Textile Rules establish disclosure requirements 
that assist consumers in making informed purchasing decisions, and 
recordkeeping requirements that assist the Commission in enforcing the 
Rules. The Rules also contain a petition procedure for requesting the 
establishment of generic names for textile fibers.
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    \1\ 15 U.S.C. 70 et seq.
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    Likely Respondents: Manufacturers, importers, processors, and 
marketers of textile fiber products.
    Frequency of Response: Third party disclosure; recordkeeping 
requirement.
    Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 43,234,317 hours (1,180,725 
recordkeeping hours + 42,053,592 disclosure hours).
    Recordkeeping: 1,180,725 hours (approximately 18,165 textile firms 
incur average burden of 65 hours per firm).
    Disclosure: 42,053,592 hours (621,725 hours to determine label 
content + 765,200 hours to draft and order labels + 40,666,667 hours to 
attach labels).
    Estimated Annual Cost Burden: $324,538,414.59.

[[Page 3660]]

    As required by section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, 44 U.S.C. 
3506(c)(2)(A), the FTC is providing this opportunity for public comment 
before requesting that OMB extend the existing clearance for the 
information collection requirements contained in the Textile Rules.

Burden Statement

    FTC staff's burden estimates are based on data from the Department 
of Commerce's Bureau of the Census and International Trade 
Administration, the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics 
(BLS), and data or other input from the main industry association, the 
American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA), and from SICCode.com, 
which specializes in the business classification of SIC (Standard 
Industrial Classification) and NAICS (North American Industry 
Classification System) codes for business identification, verification, 
and targeting. The AAFA, a national trade association that represents 
U.S. apparel, footwear and other sewn products companies and their 
suppliers, has stated that ``[t]he use of labels on textiles and 
apparels is beneficial to consumers, manufacturers, and business in 
general as it allows for the necessary flow of information along the 
supply chain.'' \2\ The relevant information collection requirements in 
these Rules and staff's corresponding burden estimates follow. The 
estimates address the number of hours needed and the labor costs 
incurred to comply with the requirements. FTC staff believes that a 
significant portion of hours and labor costs currently attributable to 
burden below are time and financial resources usually and customarily 
incurred by persons in the course of their regular activity (e.g., 
industry participants already have and/or would have fiber content 
labels regardless of the Rules) and could be excluded from PRA-related 
burden.\3\
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    \2\ Page one from comment by Kevin M. Burke, President and CEO, 
American Apparel & Footwear Association, March 26, 2012, Advance 
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; Request for Public Comment; Rules and 
Regulations under the Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939; 77 FR 4498 
(Jan. 30, 2012).
    \3\ 5 CFR 1320.3(b)(2).
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    Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 43,234,317 hours (1,180,725 
recordkeeping hours + 42,053,592 disclosure hours).
    Recordkeeping: FTC staff estimates that approximately 18,165 
textile firms are subject to the Textile Rules' recordkeeping 
requirements. Based on an average burden of 65 hours per firm, the 
total recordkeeping burden is 1,180,725 hours.
    Disclosure: Approximately 9,565 textile firms, producing or 
importing about 24.4 billion textile fiber products annually, are 
subject to the Textile Rules' disclosure requirements.\4\
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    \4\ The estimated consumption of garments in the U.S. in 2022 
was 22.8 billion. However, FTC staff estimates that 1.2 billion 
garments are exempt from the Textile Act (i.e., any kind of headwear 
and garments made from something other than a textile fiber product, 
such as leather) or are subject to a special exemption for hosiery 
products sold in packages where the label information is contained 
on the package. Based on available data, FTC staff estimates that an 
additional 3.5 billion household textile products (non-garments, 
such as sheets, towels, blankets) were consumed. However, 
approximately 0.7 billion of all of these garments and household 
products are subject to the Wool Act, not the Textile Act, because 
they contain some amount of wool. Thus, the estimated net total 
products subject to the Textile Act is 24.4 billion (22.8 - 1.2 + 
3.5 = 25.1 - 0.7 = 24.4 billion).
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    FTC staff estimates that the burden of determining label content is 
65 hours per year per firm, or a total of 621,725 hours, and the burden 
of drafting and ordering labels is 80 hours per firm per year, or a 
total of 765,200 hours. FTC staff believes that the process of 
attaching labels is now fully automated and integrated into other 
production steps for about 40 percent of all affected products. For the 
remaining 14.64 billion items (60 percent of 24.4 billion), the process 
is semi-automated and requires an average of approximately ten seconds 
per item, for a total of 40,666,667 hours per year. Thus, the total 
estimated annual disclosure burden for all firms is 42,053,592 hours 
(621,725 hours to determine label content + 765,200 hours to draft and 
order labels + 40,666,667 hours to attach labels).\5\ FTC staff 
believes that any additional burden associated with advertising 
disclosure requirements or the filing of generic fiber name petitions 
would be minimal (less than 10,000 hours) and can be subsumed within 
the burden estimates set forth above.
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    \5\ The Commission revised the Textile Rules in 2006 in response 
to amendments to the Textile Act. See 70 FR 73369 (Dec. 12, 2005). 
These amendments concerned the placement of labels on packages of 
certain types of socks and, therefore, do not place any additional 
disclosure burden on covered entities. In 2014, the Commission 
revised the Textile Rules to clarify and streamline certain 
provisions and to allow more flexibility in marketing textile 
products (e.g., allowing the use of certain hang-tags that do not 
disclose the product's full fiber content). The Commission sought 
comment on the increased burden, if any, imposed by these changes 
but did not receive any comments asserting that the amendments would 
increase compliance costs. See 79 FR 18766 (Apr. 4, 2014).
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    Estimated Annual Cost Burden: $324,538,414.59. The chart below 
summarizes the total estimated costs.
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    \6\ The wage rate for supervisors of office and administrative 
support workers is based on data through May 2022 from the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics Survey at 
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.htm (released on Apr. 25, 
2023).
    \7\ The wage rate for correspondence clerks is based on recent 
data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment 
Statistics Survey at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.htm.
    \8\ For imported products, the labels generally are attached in 
the country where the products are manufactured. According to 
information compiled by an industry trade association using data 
from the U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade 
Administration and the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 97.1% of 
apparel used in the United States is imported. With the remaining 
2.9% attributable to U.S. production at an approximate domestic 
hourly wage of $12 to attach labels, FTC staff has calculated a 
weighted average hourly wage of $6.52 per hour attributable to U.S. 
and foreign labor combined.
    \9\ This estimate includes the wage rate for correspondence 
clerks.

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                                                                                     Burden
                                Task                                 Hourly rate     hours         Labor cost
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Determine label content............................................   \6\ $31.49      621,725     $19,578,120.25
Draft and order labels.............................................    \7\ 20.46      765,200      15,655,992.00
Attach labels......................................................     \8\ 6.52   40,666,667     265,146,668.84
Recordkeeping......................................................    \9\ 20.46    1,180,725      24,157,633.50
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    Total..........................................................  ...........  ...........     324,538,414.59
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    FTC staff believes that there are no current start-up costs or 
other capital costs associated with the Textile Rules. Because the 
labeling of textile products has been an integral part of the 
manufacturing process for decades, manufacturers have in place the 
capital equipment necessary to comply with the Rules' labeling 
requirements. Industry sources indicate that much of the information 
required by the Textile Act and Rules would be included on the

[[Page 3661]]

product label even absent their requirements. Similarly, recordkeeping, 
invoicing, and advertising disclosures are tasks performed in the 
ordinary course of business; therefore, covered firms would incur no 
additional capital or other non-labor costs as a result of the Rules.

Request for Comment

    Pursuant to section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, the FTC invites 
comments on: (1) whether the disclosure and recordkeeping requirements 
are necessary, including whether the information will be practically 
useful; (2) the accuracy of our burden estimates, including whether the 
methodology and assumptions used are valid; (3) ways to enhance the 
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and 
(4) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information.
    For the FTC to consider a comment, we must receive it on or before 
March 19, 2024. Your comment, including your name and your state, will 
be placed on the public record of this proceeding, including the 
https://www.regulations.gov website.
    You can file a comment online or on paper. Due to heightened 
security screening, postal mail addressed to the Commission will be 
subject to delay. We encourage you to submit your comments online 
through the https://www.regulations.gov website.
    If you file your comment on paper, write ``Textile Rules; PRA 
Comment: FTC File No. P072108'' on your comment and on the envelope, 
and mail it to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office 
of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite CC-5610 (Annex J), 
Washington, DC 20580.
    Because your comment will become publicly available at https://www.regulations.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 (1) be filed in paper form, (2) be clearly labeled 
``Confidential,'' and (3) 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 publicly at www.regulations.gov, we cannot redact or remove 
your comment 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 March 19, 
2024. 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.

Josephine Liu,
Assistant General Counsel for Legal Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2024-01001 Filed 1-18-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P