Federal Trade Commission December 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The information collection requirements described below will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (``OMB'') for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA''). The FTC is seeking public comments on its proposal to extend through April 30, 2012 the current PRA clearance for information collection requirements contained in the Pay-Per-Call Rule (``Rule''). That clearance expires on April 30, 2009.

The Federal Trade Commission announces that the ceiling on allowable charges under Section 612(f) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (``FCRA'') will increase from $10.50 to $11.00 effective January 1, 2009. Under 1996 amendments to the FCRA, the Federal Trade Commission is required to increase the $8.00 amount referred to in paragraph (1)(A)(i) of Section 612(f) on January 1 of each year, based proportionally on changes in the Consumer Price Index (``CPI''), with fractional changes rounded to the nearest fifty cents. The CPI increased 35.72 percent between September 1997, the date the FCRA amendments took effect, and September 2008. This increase in the CPI and the requirement that any increase be rounded to the nearest fifty cents results in an increase in the maximum allowable charge to $11.00 effective January 1, 2009.

The Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'') has rescinded its 1966 guidance providing that it is generally not a violation of the FTC Act to make factual statements of the tar and nicotine yields of cigarettes when statements of such yields are supported by testing conducted pursuant to the Cambridge Filter Method, also frequently referred to as ``the FTC Method.'' In addition, advertisers should not use terms such as ``per FTC Method'' or other phrases that state or imply FTC endorsement or approval of the Cambridge Filter Method or other machine-based test methods.

The FTC plans to conduct a consumer study to research alternatives to existing lamp (i.e., light bulb) labeling requirements. This study is part of the Commission's rulemaking proceeding to examine the effectiveness of current light bulb package labeling as directed by Congress. Before conducting this research, the FTC is seeking public comments on the proposed study as part of its compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA'').