[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 13 (Friday, January 19, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3655-3657]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-01005]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


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 Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939 (``Wool 
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 ``Wool 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 Wool Products 
Labeling Act of 1939, 16 CFR part 300.
    OMB Control Number: 3084-0100.
    Type of Review: Extension without change of currently approved 
collection.
    Abstract: The Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939 (Wool Act) 
prohibits the misbranding of wool products. The Wool Rules establish 
disclosure requirements that assist consumers in making informed 
purchasing decisions and recordkeeping requirements that assist the 
Commission in enforcing the Rules.
    Likely Respondents: Manufacturers, importers, processors, and 
marketers of wool products.
    Frequency of Response: Third party disclosure; recordkeeping 
requirement.
    Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 2,046,667 hours (160,000 
recordkeeping hours + 1,886,667 disclosure hours).
    Recordkeeping: 160,000 hours (4,000 wool firms incur an average 40 
hours per firm).
    Disclosure: 1,886,667 hours (240,000 hours for determining label 
content + 480,000 hours to draft and order labels + 1,166,667 hours to 
attach labels).
    Estimated Annual Cost Burden: $28,258,668.84 (solely relating to 
labor costs).
    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 Wool Rules.

Burden Statement

    FTC staff's burden estimates for the Wool Rules are based on data 
from the Department of Commerce's Bureau of the Census, the 
International Trade Commission, 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 
which 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.'' \1\
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    \1\ 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).
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    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 care

[[Page 3656]]

labels regardless of the Rules) and could be excluded from PRA-related 
burden.\2\
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    \2\ 5 CFR 1320.3(b)(2).
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    Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 2,046,667 hours (160,000 
recordkeeping hours + 1,886,667 disclosure hours).
    Recordkeeping: FTC staff estimates that approximately 4,000 wool 
firms are subject to the Wool Rules' recordkeeping requirements. Based 
on an average annual burden of 40 hours per firm, the total 
recordkeeping burden is 160,000 hours.
    Disclosure: Approximately 8,000 wool firms, producing or importing 
about 700,000,000 wool products annually, are subject to the Wool 
Rules' disclosure requirements. FTC staff estimates the burden of 
determining label content to be 30 hours per year per firm, or a total 
of 240,000 hours, and the burden of drafting and ordering labels to be 
60 hours per firm per year, or a total of 480,000 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 420,000,000 items (60 percent of 
700,000,000), the process is semi-automated and requires an average of 
approximately ten seconds per item, for a total of 1,166,667 hours per 
year. Thus, the total estimated annual burden for all firms is 
1,886,667 hours (240,000 hours for determining label content + 480,000 
hours to draft and order labels + 1,166,667 hours to attach labels). 
FTC staff believes that any additional burden associated with 
advertising disclosure requirements would be minimal (less than 10,000 
hours) and can be subsumed within the burden estimates set forth above.
    Estimated Annual Cost Burden: $28,258,668.84 (solely relating to 
labor costs). The chart below summarizes the total estimated costs.
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    \3\ 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 April 25, 
2023).
    \4\ 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.
    \5\ 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, staff has calculated a weighted 
average hourly wage of $6.52 per hour attributable to U.S. and 
foreign labor combined.
    \6\ This estimate includes the wage rate for correspondence 
clerks.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  Hourly      Burden
             Task                  rate       hours        Labor cost
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Determine label content.......     $31.49      240,000        $7,557,600
                                      \3\
Draft and order labels........  20.46 \4\      480,000         9,820,800
Attach labels.................   6.52 \5\    1,166,667      7,606,668.84
Recordkeeping.................  20.46 \6\      160,000         3,273,600
                               -----------------------------------------
    Total.....................  .........  ...........     28,258,668.84
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    FTC staff believes that there are no current start-up costs or 
other capital costs associated with the Wool Rules. Because the 
labeling of wool 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. Based on 
knowledge of the industry, staff believes that much of the information 
required by the Wool Act and Rules would be included on the product 
label even absent their requirements. Similarly, recordkeeping and 
advertising disclosures are tasks performed in the ordinary course of 
business so that 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 ``Wool 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

[[Page 3657]]

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. 2024-01005 Filed 1-18-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P