Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 13 / Friday, January 19, 2024 / Notices 3659 

1 15 U.S.C. 70 et seq. 

are incidental to testing and advertising 

done in the ordinary course of business. 

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 ‘‘Amplifier Rule, PRA Comment, 

P085405,’’ 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. 

If possible, submit your paper comment 

to the Commission by overnight service. 

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. 2024–01006 Filed 1–18–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6750–01–P 

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 

[File No. P072108] 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Proposed Collection; 

Comment Request; Extension 

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission. 

ACTION: Notice. 

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 webbased 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. 

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. 


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3660 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 13 / Friday, January 19, 2024 / Notices 

2Page 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). 

4The 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). 5The 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). 

6The 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). 

7The 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. 

8For 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. 

9This estimate includes the wage rate for 

correspondence clerks. 

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 PRArelated burden.3

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

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. 

Estimated Annual Cost Burden: 

$324,538,414.59. The chart below 

summarizes the total estimated costs. 

Task Hourly rate Burden 

hours Labor cost 

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 

Total ........................................................................................................................................ .................... .................... 324,538,414.59 

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 


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Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 13 / Friday, January 19, 2024 / Notices 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 

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Submission for OMB 

Review; Comment Request; Extension 

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Federal Trade 

Commission (‘‘FTC’’ or ‘‘Commission’’) 

requests that the Office of Management 

and Budget (‘‘OMB’’) extend for an 

additional three years the current 

Paperwork Reduction Act (‘‘PRA’’) 

clearance for information collection 

requirements in the Trade Regulation 

Rule entitled Labeling and Advertising 

of Home Insulation (‘‘R-value Rule’’ or 

‘‘Rule’’). That clearance expires on 

March 31, 2024. 

DATES: Comments must be filed by 

February 20, 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. Written comments and 

recommendations for the proposed 

information collection should be sent 

within 30 days of publication of this 

notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/ 

PRAMain. Find this particular 

information collection by selecting 

‘‘Currently under 30-day Review—Open 

for Public Comments’’ or by using the 

search function. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Hampton Newsome, Attorney, Division 

of Enforcement, Federal Trade 

Commission, Room CC–9528, 600 

Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, 

DC 20580, (202) 326–2889. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Title of Collection: R-value Rule, 16 

CFR part 460. 

OMB Control Number: 3084–0109. 

Type of Review: Extension without 

change of currently approved collection. 

Abstract: The R-value Rule establishes 

uniform standards for the substantiation 

and disclosure of accurate, material 

product information about the thermal 

performance characteristics of home 

insulation products. The R-value of an 

insulation signifies the insulation’s 

degree of resistance to the flow of heat. 

This information tells consumers how 

well a product is likely to perform as an 

insulator and allows consumers to 

determine whether the cost of the 

insulation is justified. 

Affected Public: Insulation 

manufacturers, installers, home 

builders, home sellers, insulation 

sellers. 

Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 

100,874 hours. 

Estimated Annual Labor Costs: 

$2,424,450.68 (solely related to labor 

costs). 

Request for Comment: On August 30, 

2023, the FTC sought public comment 

on the information collection 

requirements associated with the Rule. 

88 FR 59923 (Aug. 30, 2023). No 

relevant comments were received 

during the public comment period. 

Pursuant to 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 the pre-existing clearance for 

the Rule. For more details about the 


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