The costs of searching for and, in the case of a commercial use request, reviewing records may be assessed even where ultimately no documents are disclosed or located. A requester may not file multiple requests, each seeking portions of a document or documents in order to avoid the payment of fees. When there is reason to believe that a requester or a group of requesters acting in concert, is attempting to break a request down into a series of requests for the purpose of evading the assessment of fees, any such requests may be aggregated and the requesters charged as if there were only a single request. To make an advance payment of the full amount of the estimated fee before the component begins to process a new request. In any case, the payment of outstanding fees may be required before responsive materials are actually disclosed to a requester.
Time limits to respond extended when advance payments requested.
Interest charges on an unpaid bill may be assessed starting on the 31st day following the day on which the billing was sent. Interest shall be at the rate prescribed in section 3717 of title 31 U.S.C. and shall accrue from the date of the billing. The Freedom of Information Act does not require certification or attestation under seal of copies of records furnished in accordance with its provisions. Authority is hereby given to any officer or officers of the Department of Labor designated as authentication officer or officers of the Department to sign and issue attestations under the seal of the Department of Labor. All transcripts shall be made available in accordance with the terms set forth in 70.40.