[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 59 (Tuesday, March 26, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20972-20974]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-06351]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection;
Comment Request; Extension
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
(``PRA''), the Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'') is
seeking public comment on its proposal to extend for an additional
three years the Office of Management and Budget clearance for
information collection requirements pertaining to the Commission's
administrative activities, consisting of: responding to applications to
the Commission pursuant to the Commission's Rules of Practice (Parts 1
and 4); the FTC's consumer reporting systems; and the FTC's program
evaluation activities. The current clearance expires on June 30, 2024.
DATES: Comments must be filed by May 28, 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 ``Administrative
Activities, PRA Comment, P085405,'' 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: G. Richard Gold, Attorney, Office of
the
[[Page 20973]]
General Counsel, Federal Trade Commission, (202) 326-3355,
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title of Collection: FTC Administrative Activities.
OMB Control Number: 3084-0169.
Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
Affected Public: Private Sector: Businesses and other for-profit
entities.
Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 1,414,080 hours.
Estimated Annual Labor Costs: $21,600.
Discussion
Pursuant to its Rules of Practice, the Commission collects
information to carry out its administrative responsibilities. For
example, any person, partnership, or corporation may request advice
from the Commission or FTC staff regarding a course of action the
requester contemplates. The Commission's rules require requesters to
provide the information necessary to facilitate resolution of the
requests, including information on the question to be resolved, the
identity of the companies or persons involved, and other material
facts. See FTC Rule 1.2, 16 CFR 1.2. As another example, the FTC's
ethics regulations require former employees who are seeking ethical
clearance to participate in FTC matters to submit screening affidavits
to facilitate resolution of their requests. See FTC Rule 4.1(b), 16 CFR
4.1(b). Requests to participate must include, among other things, a
description of the proceeding in which participation is contemplated;
the name of the Commission office or division in which the former
employee was employed and the position the employee occupied; and a
statement whether, while employed by the Commission, the former
employee participated in any proceeding or investigation concerning the
same company, individual, or industry currently involved in the matter
in question. These requirements prevent the improper use of
confidential nonpublic information acquired while working at the FTC.
The Commission's Rules of Practice also authorize outside parties to
request employee testimony, through compulsory process or otherwise,
and to request documentary material through compulsory process in cases
or matters to which the agency is not a party. See FTC Rule 4.11(e), 16
CFR 4.11(e). These rules require persons seeking testimony or material
from the Commission to submit a statement in support of the request
setting forth the party's interest in the case or matter, the relevance
of the desired testimony or material, and a discussion of whether it is
reasonably available from other sources.
The Commission receives approximately 60 such requests annually.
Staff estimates respondents will incur, on average, approximately 2
hours of burden to submit a request, resulting in a cumulative 120
burden hours per year (60 requests x 2 burden hours). Based on an
estimated average wage of $150/hour for executive and attorney wages,
staff estimates a total annual cost burden of $18,000 (120 hours x
$150). Staff estimates that requesters would incur no capital, start-
up, operation, maintenance, or other similar costs associated with
submitting covered requests.
The FTC also allows consumers to report fraud, identity theft,
National Do Not Call Registry violations, and other violations of law
through telephone hotlines and three online consumer report forms.
Consumers may call a hotline phone number or log on to the FTC's
website to report violations using the applicable reporting forms. The
provision of this information is voluntary. The FTC also conducts
customer satisfaction surveys regarding the support that the
Commission's Consumer Response Center provides to consumers to obtain
information about the overall effectiveness of the call center and
online complaint intake forms. This information assists Bureau of
Consumer Protection staff in carrying out the agency's consumer
protection mission. The FTC is also mandated by Congress under the
Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998, 18 U.S.C. 1001 et
seq., to serve as the central clearinghouse for identity theft
complaints.
As shown below this paragraph, the time necessary to file a
consumer report or participate in related customer satisfaction surveys
will vary. FTC staff estimates approximately 9,705,304 respondents will
annually submit information pursuant to these processes. The time that
each respondent will need to spend will depend on the type of consumer
report being filed or the type of survey being filled out, as well as
the method of participation (phone, online, web chat). Aggregated
across the different types of activities, FTC staff estimates that the
associated burden will be 1,413,936 hours per year over the course of
the three-year clearance. The cost per respondent to file a complaint
is negligible. Participation is voluntary and will not require any
labor expenditures by respondents. In addition, there are no capital,
start-up, operation, maintenance, or other similar costs for
respondents.
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Number of
Activity Number of minutes/ Total hours
respondents activity
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Misc. and fraud-related consumer complaints (phone)............. 476,175 8.7 69,045
Identity theft complaints (phone)............................... 293,597 7.2 35,232
CRC Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire (phone)................. 13,376 4.3 959
CRC Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire (online)-- 22,241 3.1 1,149
ReportFraud.ftc.gov............................................
CRC Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire (online)-- 4,728 3.1 244
IdentityTheft.gov..............................................
Misc. and fraud-related consumer complaints (online)............ 4,364,003 5.16 375,304
Identity theft complaints (online).............................. 3,119,075 9.8 509,449
Misc. and fraud-related consumer complaints (Web chat).......... 77,614 5.57 7,205
Identity theft complaints (Web chat)............................ 104,282 4.6 7,995
Misc. and fraud-related consumer complaints (Live Web chat)..... 3,950 9.6 632
Identity theft complaints (Live Web chat)....................... 23,934 9.9 3,949
Do-Not-Call related consumer complaints (phone)................. 1,022,325 3 51,116
Do-Not-Call related consumer complaints (online)................ 8,473,199 2.5 353,050
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Totals...................................................... 9,705,304 .............. 1,413,936
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The FTC also conducts evaluations of the effectiveness of its
merger divestiture orders. Following an order of divestiture in a
merger matter, the FTC's Bureau of Competition's Compliance Division
conducts brief calls with
[[Page 20974]]
acquirers of divested assets to assess the effectiveness of these
divestitures. In 2023, 2022, and 2021, the Commission issued 9, 14, and
6 orders, respectively, and a few required divestitures. For interviews
with purchasers of divested assets, each interview typically takes less
than one hour to complete. FTC staff estimates that it takes each
participant no more than one hour to prepare for the interview.
Accordingly, staff estimates that, for each interview, two individuals
(typically a company executive and an attorney) will devote two hours
each (one hour preparing and one hour participating) to responding to
questions for a total of four hours. Assuming that staff evaluates
approximately 4 divestitures per year during the three-year clearance
period, staff estimates that the total hours burden will be 16 hours
per year (4 divestiture reviews x 4 hours for preparing and
participating). Staff may include approximately two monitor interviews
a year, which would add at most 4 hours (2 interviews x 2 hours for
preparing and participating). Interviews of monitors typically involve
only the monitor and take approximately one hour to complete with no
more than one hour to prepare for the interview. At most, this yields a
total burden of 24 burden hours per year. Staff estimates that the
total annual labor cost, based on an estimated average of $150/hour for
executive and attorney wages, would be $3,600 (24 hours x $150). There
are no capital, start-up, operation, maintenance, or other similar
costs to respondents.
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
May 28, 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 ``Administrative
Activities, 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.
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 May 28, 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. 2024-06351 Filed 3-25-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P