Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment Request, 64072-64074 [2019-25110]

Agencies

• FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 224 (Wednesday, November 20, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64072-64074]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-25110]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Notice and request for comment.

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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 its ``Used Motor 
Vehicle Trade Regulation Rule'' (``Used Car Rule'' or ``Rule''), which 
applies to used vehicle dealers. The existing clearance expires on 
December 31, 2019.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before December 20, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Comments in response to this notice should be submitted to 
the OMB Desk Officer for the Federal Trade Commission within 30 days of 
this notice. You may submit comments using any of the following 
methods:
    Electronic: Write ``Used Car Rule, PRA Comment, FTC File No. 
P137606,'' on your comment and file your comment online at https://www.regulations.gov, by following the instructions on the web-based 
form.
    Email: [email protected].
    Mail: Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of 
Management and Budget, Attention: Desk Officer for the Federal Trade 
Commission, New Executive Office Building, Docket Library, Room 10102, 
725 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20503.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Elizabeth Scott, (312) 960-5609, 
Attorney, Midwest Region, Federal Trade Commission, 230 South Dearborn 
Street, Suite 3030, Chicago, IL 60604.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), the FTC has submitted to the Office of 
Management and Budget (``OMB'') this request for extension of the 
previously approved collection of information discussed below.
    Title: Used Motor Vehicle Trade Regulation Rule.
    OMB Control Number: 3084-0108.
    Type of Review: Extension of currently approved collection.
    Estimated Total Annual Hours Burden: 2,368,993.
    The component tasks associated with the Rule's required display of 
Buyers

[[Page 64073]]

Guides include: (1) Ordering and stocking Buyers Guides; (2) entering 
data on Buyers Guides; (3) displaying the Buyers Guides on vehicles; 
(4) revising Buyers Guides as necessary; and (5) complying with the 
Rule's requirements for sales conducted in Spanish.
    1. Ordering and Stocking Buyers Guides: Staff has estimated that 
used car dealers should need no more than an average of two hours per 
year to obtain Buyers Guides, which are readily available from many 
commercial printers or can be produced by an office word-processing or 
desk-top publishing system.\1\ Based on an estimated population of 
53,779 dealers, the annual hours burden for producing or obtaining and 
stocking Buyers Guides is 107,558 hours.
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    \1\ Buyers Guides are also available online from the FTC's 
website, www.ftc.gov, at https://business.ftc.gov/selected-industries/automobiles.
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    2. Entering Data on Buyers Guides: Staff estimates that dealers 
will require an average of two minutes per Buyers Guide to enter 
applicable data on Buyers Guides. For used cars sold under warranty, 
the time required to check the ``Warranty'' box and to add warranty 
information, such as the additional information required in the 
Percentage of Labor/Parts and the Systems Covered/Duration sections of 
the Buyers Guide, will depend on whether the dealer uses a manual or 
automated process or Buyers Guides that are pre-printed with the 
dealer's standard warranty terms. Staff estimates that these tasks will 
take an average of one additional minute, i.e., cumulatively, an 
average total time of three minutes for each used car sold under 
warranty.
    Staff estimates that dealers sell approximately fifty percent of 
used cars ``as is'' and the other half under warranty. Therefore, staff 
estimates that the overall time required to enter data on Buyers Guides 
consists of 486,906 hours for used cars sold without a warranty 
(29,214,371 vehicles x 50% x 2 minutes per vehicle) and 730,359 hours 
for used cars sold under warranty (29,214,371 vehicles x 50% x 3 
minutes per vehicle) for a cumulative estimated total of 1,217,265 
hours.
    3. Displaying Buyers Guides on Vehicles: Although the time required 
to display the Buyers Guides on each used car may vary, FTC staff 
estimates that dealers will spend an average of 1.75 minutes per 
vehicle to match the correct Buyers Guide to the vehicle and to display 
it on the vehicle. The estimated burden associated with this task is 
approximately 852,086 hours for the estimated 29,214,371 vehicles sold 
annually (29,214,371 vehicles x 1.75 minutes per vehicle).
    4. Revising Buyers Guides as Necessary: If negotiations between the 
buyer and seller over warranty coverage produce a sale on terms other 
than those originally entered on the Buyers Guide, the dealer must 
revise the Buyers Guide to reflect the actual terms of sale. According 
to the original rulemaking record, bargaining over warranty coverage 
rarely occurs. Staff notes that consumers often do not need to 
negotiate over warranty coverage because they can find vehicles that 
are offered with the desired warranty coverage online or in other ways 
before ever contacting a dealer. Accordingly, staff assumes that 
dealers will revise the Buyers Guide in no more than two percent of 
sales, with an average time of two minutes per revision. Therefore, 
staff estimates that dealers annually will spend approximately 19,476 
hours revising Buyers Guides (29,214,371 vehicles x 2% x 2 minutes per 
vehicle).
    5. Spanish Language Sales: The Rule requires dealers to make 
contract disclosures in Spanish if the dealer conducts a sale in 
Spanish.\2\ The Rule permits displaying both an English and a Spanish 
language Buyers Guide to comply with this requirement.\3\ Many dealers 
with large numbers of Spanish-speaking customers likely will post both 
English and Spanish Buyers Guides to avoid potential compliance 
violations.
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    \2\ 16 CFR 455.5.
    \3\ Id.
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    Calculations from United States Census Bureau surveys indicate that 
approximately 5.4 percent of the United States population speaks 
Spanish at home, without also speaking fluent English.\4\ Staff 
therefore projects that dealers will conduct approximately 5.4 percent 
of used car sales in Spanish. Dealers will incur the additional burden 
of completing and displaying a second Buyers Guide in 5.4 percent of 
sales assuming that dealers choose to comply with the Rule by posting 
both English and Spanish Buyers Guides. The annual hours burden 
associated with completing and displaying Buyers Guides is 2,069,351 
hours (1,217,265 hours for entering data on Buyers Guides + 852,086 
hours for displaying Buyers Guides). Therefore, staff estimates that 
the additional burden caused by the Rule's requirement that dealers 
display Spanish language Buyers Guides when conducting sales in Spanish 
is 111,745 hours (2,069,351 hours x 5.4% of sales). The other 
components of the annual hours burden, i.e., purchasing Buyers Guides 
and revising them for changes in warranty coverage, remain unchanged.
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    \4\ U.S. Census Bureau, TableB16001. Language Spoken at Home. 
2017 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, available at: 
https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_11_1YR_B16001&prodType=table (last visited 
June 7, 2019) (5.4% of the United States population 5 years or older 
who speaks Spanish or Spanish Creole in the home speaks English less 
than ``very well.'').
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    6. Optional Disclosures of Non-Dealer Warranties: The Rule does not 
require dealers to disclose information about non-dealer warranties, 
but provides dealers with the options to disclose such warranties on 
Buyers Guides. FTC staff has estimated that dealers will make the 
optional disclosures on 25% of used cars offered for sale. Staff 
believes that checking the optional boxes to disclose a non-dealer 
warranty should require dealers no more than 30 seconds per vehicle. 
Accordingly, based on 29,214,371 used cars sold, staff estimates that 
making the optional disclosures entails a burden of 60,863 hours (25% x 
29,214,371 vehicles sold x 1/120 hour per vehicle).
    Annual labor cost: $40,083,362.
    FTC staff's labor cost estimates are derived by applying 
appropriate hourly cost figures to the burden hours described above. 
Staff has determined that all of the tasks associated with ordering 
forms, entering data on Buyers Guides, posting Buyers Guides on 
vehicles, and revising them as needed, including the corresponding 
tasks associated with Spanish Buyers Guides and providing optional 
disclosures about non-dealer warranties, are typically done by clerical 
or low-level administrative personnel. Using a clerical cost rate of 
$16.92 per hour \5\ and an estimated burden of 2,368,993 hours for 
disclosure requirements, the total labor cost burden is $40,083,362 
($16.92 per hour x 2,368,993 hours).
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    \5\ The hourly rate is based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics 
estimate of the mean hourly wage for office clerks, general. 
Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2018, 43-9061 Office Clerks, 
General, available at: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes439061.htm#nat.
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Request for Comment

    On August 8, 2019, the Commission sought comment on the information 
collection requirements associated with the Used Car Rule. 84 FR 38979 
(Aug. 8, 2019). No relevant comments were received. Pursuant to the 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 
those information collection requirements. An agency may not conduct or 
sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to a collection

[[Page 64074]]

of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number.
    Your comment--including your name and your state--will be placed on 
the public record of this proceeding. 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 provided in Section 6(f) 
of the FTC Act 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16CFR 
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.

Heather Hippsley,
Deputy General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2019-25110 Filed 11-19-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6750-01-P