SteriMed Medical Waste Solutions; Analysis of Proposed Consent Order To Aid Public Comment, 51258-51260 [2015-20800]

Agencies

• FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 163 (Monday, August 24, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51258-51260]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-20800]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

[File No. 152 3193]


SteriMed Medical Waste Solutions; Analysis of Proposed Consent 
Order To Aid Public Comment

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Proposed Consent Agreement.

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SUMMARY: The consent agreement in this matter settles alleged 
violations of federal law prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or 
practices. The attached Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes both 
the allegations in the draft complaint and the terms of the consent 
order--embodied in the consent agreement--that would settle these 
allegations.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before September 16, 2015.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/sterimedconsent online or on paper, by 
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write ``SteriMed Medical Waste 
Solutions--Consent Agreement; File No. 152 3193'' on your comment and 
file your comment online at https://

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ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/sterimedconsent by following the 
instructions on the Web-based form. If you prefer to file your comment 
on paper, write ``SteriMed Medical Waste Solutions--Consent Agreement; 
File No. 152 3193'' on your comment and on the envelope, and mail your 
comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of 
the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex D), 
Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the following address: 
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Constitution Center, 
400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 
20024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Emily Robinson, FTC Southwest Region, 
((214) 979-9386), 1999 Bryan Street, Suite 2150, Dallas, TX 75201.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to Section 6(f) of the Federal 
Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 2.34, 16 CFR 2.34, 
notice is hereby given that the above-captioned consent agreement 
containing consent order to cease and desist, having been filed with 
and accepted, subject to final approval, by the Commission, has been 
placed on the public record for a period of thirty (30) days. The 
following Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes the terms of the 
consent agreement, and the allegations in the complaint. An electronic 
copy of the full text of the consent agreement package can be obtained 
from the FTC Home Page (for August 17, 2015), on the World Wide Web at: 
https://www.ftc.gov/os/actions.shtm.
    You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to 
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before September 16, 
2015. Write ``SteriMed Medical Waste Solutions--Consent Agreement; File 
No. 152 3193'' on your comment. Your comment--including your name and 
your state--will be placed on the public record of this proceeding, 
including, to the extent practicable, on the public Commission Web 
site, at https://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a matter of 
discretion, the Commission tries to remove individuals' home contact 
information from comments before placing them on the Commission Web 
site.
    Because your comment will be made public, you are solely 
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any 
sensitive personal information, like anyone'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, like medical records or other 
individually identifiable health information. In addition, do not 
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information 
which . . . is privileged or confidential,'' as discussed in 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). In particular, do not include competitively sensitive 
information such as costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas, 
patterns, devices, manufacturing processes, or customer names.
    If you want the Commission to give your comment confidential 
treatment, you must file it in paper form, with a request for 
confidential treatment, and you have to follow the procedure explained 
in FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).\1\ Your comment will be kept 
confidential only if the FTC General Counsel, in his or her sole 
discretion, grants your request in accordance with the law and the 
public interest.
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    \1\ 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), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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    Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to 
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit 
your comments online. To make sure that the Commission considers your 
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/sterimedconsent by following the instructions on the web-based 
form. If this Notice appears at https://www.regulations.gov/#!home, you 
also may file a comment through that Web site.
    If you file your comment on paper, write ``SteriMed Medical Waste 
Solutions--Consent Agreement; File No. 152 3193'' on your comment and 
on the envelope, and mail your comment to the following address: 
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania 
Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20580, or deliver 
your comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office 
of the Secretary, Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, 
Suite 5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20024. If possible, submit your 
paper comment to the Commission by courier or overnight service.
    Visit the Commission Web site at https://www.ftc.gov to read this 
Notice and the news release describing it. 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 September 16, 2015. You can find more 
information, including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, in 
the Commission's privacy policy, at https://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.

Analysis of Proposed Consent Order To Aid Public Comment

    The Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'') has 
accepted, subject to final approval, a consent agreement applicable to 
SteriMed Medical Waste Solutions.
    The proposed consent order has been placed on the public record for 
thirty (30) days for receipt of comments by interested persons. 
Comments received during this period will become part of the public 
record. After thirty (30) days, the Commission will again review the 
agreement and the comments received, and will decide whether it should 
withdraw from the agreement and take appropriate action or make final 
the agreement's proposed order.
    This matter concerns alleged false or misleading representations 
that SteriMed Medical Waste Solutions made to consumers concerning its 
participation in the Safe Harbor privacy framework agreed upon by the 
U.S. and the European Union (``EU'') (``U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework'' 
or ``Safe Harbor Framework''). The Safe Harbor Framework allows U.S. 
companies to transfer data outside the EU consistent with EU law. To 
join the Safe Harbor Framework, a company must self-certify to the U.S. 
Department of Commerce (``Commerce'') that it complies with a set of 
principles and related requirements that have been deemed by the 
European Commission as providing ``adequate'' privacy protection. These 
principles include notice, choice, onward transfer, security, data 
integrity, access, and enforcement. Commerce maintains a public Web 
site, www.export.gov/safeharbor, where it posts the names of companies 
that have self-certified to the Safe Harbor Framework. The listing of 
companies indicates whether their self-certification is ``current'' or 
``not current.'' Companies are required to re-certify every year in 
order to retain their status as ``current'' members of the Safe Harbor 
Framework.

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    SteriMed Medical Waste Solutions develops and manufactures on-site 
chemical-based medical waste processors. According to the Commission's 
complaint, since at least January 2015, SteriMed Medical Waste 
Solutions set forth on its Web site, https://www.sterimedsystems.com/privacy.html, privacy policies and statements about its practices, 
including statements related to its participation in the U.S.-EU Safe 
Harbor Framework.
    The Commission's complaint alleges that SteriMed Medical Waste 
Solutions falsely represented that it was a participant in the U.S.-EU 
Safe Harbor Framework when, in fact, SteriMed Medical Waste Solutions 
was never a participant in the Safe Harbor Framework. Commerce has 
never included the company on its public Web site.
    Part I of the proposed order prohibits SteriMed Medical Waste 
Solutions from making misrepresentations about its membership in any 
privacy or security program sponsored by the government or any other 
self-regulatory or standard-setting organization, including, but not 
limited to, the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework and the U.S.-Swiss Safe 
Harbor Framework.
    Parts II through VI of the proposed order are reporting and 
compliance provisions. Part II requires SteriMed Medical Waste 
Solutions to retain documents relating to its compliance with the Order 
for a five-year period. Part III requires dissemination of the order 
now and in the future to persons with responsibilities relating to the 
subject matter of the order. Part IV ensures the notification to the 
FTC of changes in corporate status. Part V mandates that SteriMed 
Medical Waste Solutions submit an initial compliance report to the FTC, 
and make available to the FTC subsequent reports. Part VI is a 
provision ``sunsetting'' the order after twenty (20) years, with 
certain exceptions.
    The purpose of this analysis is to facilitate public comment on the 
proposed order. It is not intended to constitute an official 
interpretation of the proposed complaint or order or to modify the 
order's terms in any way.

    By direction of the Commission.
Donald S. Clark,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2015-20800 Filed 8-21-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P