Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Extension, 3659-3661 [2024-01001]
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Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 13 / Friday, January 19, 2024 / Notices
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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
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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
Federal Trade Commission.
Notice.
AGENCY:
ACTION:
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.
SUMMARY:
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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.
DATES:
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.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
1 15
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U.S.C. 70 et seq.
19JAN1
3660
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 13 / Friday, January 19, 2024 / Notices
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
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Task
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.
Hourly rate
Determine label content .................................................................................................................
Draft and order labels ....................................................................................................................
Attach labels ..................................................................................................................................
Recordkeeping ...............................................................................................................................
6 $31.49
Total ........................................................................................................................................
Burden
hours
Labor cost
9 20.46
621,725
765,200
40,666,667
1,180,725
$19,578,120.25
15,655,992.00
265,146,668.84
24,157,633.50
....................
....................
324,538,414.59
7 20.46
8 6.52
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
2 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).
3 5 CFR 1320.3(b)(2).
4 The 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).
5 The 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).
6 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 Apr. 25, 2023).
7 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.
8 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, FTC
staff has calculated a weighted average hourly wage
of $6.52 per hour attributable to U.S. and foreign
labor combined.
9 This estimate includes the wage rate for
correspondence clerks.
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19JAN1
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 13 / Friday, January 19, 2024 / Notices
ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1
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
VerDate Sep<11>2014
18:42 Jan 18, 2024
Jkt 262001
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
Federal Trade Commission.
Notice.
AGENCY:
ACTION:
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
SUMMARY:
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3661
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
E:\FR\FM\19JAN1.SGM
19JAN1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 13 (Friday, January 19, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3659-3661]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-01001]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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 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 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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ 15 U.S.C. 70 et seq.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
[[Page 3660]]
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 PRA-related
burden.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ 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).
\3\ 5 CFR 1320.3(b)(2).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ The 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).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
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\5\ The 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).
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Estimated Annual Cost Burden: $324,538,414.59. The chart below
summarizes the total estimated costs.
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\6\ 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 Apr. 25,
2023).
\7\ 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.
\8\ 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, FTC staff has calculated a
weighted average hourly wage of $6.52 per hour attributable to U.S.
and foreign labor combined.
\9\ This estimate includes the wage rate for correspondence
clerks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Burden
Task Hourly rate 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
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Total.......................................................... ........... ........... 324,538,414.59
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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
[[Page 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
