Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Extension
| Published date | 12 November 2020 |
| Record Number | 2020-25035 |
| Section | Notices |
| Court | Federal Trade Commission |
Federal Register, Volume 85 Issue 219 (Thursday, November 12, 2020)
[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 219 (Thursday, November 12, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 71900-71902]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-25035]
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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 in its rule governing Care Labeling
of Textile Wearing Apparel and Certain Piece Goods As Amended (``Care
Labeling Rule''). The current clearance expires on May 31, 2021.
DATES: Comments must be filed by January 11, 2021.
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 ``Care Labeling Rule:
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, 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 J), Washington, DC
20024.
[[Page 71901]]
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Hampton Newsome, Attorney, Division of
Enforcement, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission,
Mail Code CC-9528, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20580,
(202) 326-2889.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title of Collection: Care Labeling of
Textile Wearing Apparel and Certain Piece Goods As Amended, 16 CFR 423.
OMB Control Number: 3084-0103.
Type of Review: Extension of currently approved collection.
Affected Public: Private Sector: Businesses and other for-profit
entities.
Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 27,489,476 hours.
Estimated Annual Labor Costs: $187,184,518.
Abstract: The Care Labeling Rule requires manufacturers and
importers of textile wearing apparel and certain piece goods to attach
labels to their products disclosing the care needed for the ordinary
use of the product. The Rule also requires manufacturers or importers
to possess a reasonable basis for care instructions, and allows the use
of approved care symbols in lieu of words to disclose those
instructions.
Burden Statement: Staff estimates that approximately 10,744
manufacturers or importers of textile apparel, producing about 18.4
billion textile garments annually, are subject to the Rule's disclosure
requirements. Staff estimates the burden of determining care
instructions to be 100 hours each year per firm, for a cumulative total
of 1,074,400 hours. Staff further estimates that the burden of drafting
and providing labels is 80 hours each year per firm, for a total of
859,520 hours. Staff believes that the process of attaching labels is
fully automated and integrated into other production steps for about 50
percent (approximately, 9.2 billion) of the approximately 18.4 billion
garments that are required to have care instructions on permanent
labels. For the remaining 9.2 billion items, the process is semi-
automated and requires an average of approximately ten seconds per
item, for a total of 25,555,556 hours per year. Thus, the total
estimated annual burden for all firms is 27,489,476 hours.
The chart below summarizes the total estimated costs.
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Hourly rate
Task \1\ Burden hours Labor cost
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Determine care instructions..................................... $29.00 1,074,400 $31,157,600
Draft and order labels.......................................... 18.00 859,520 15,471,360
Attach labels................................................... \2\ 5.50 25,555,556 140,555,558
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Total....................................................... .............. .............. 187,184,518
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Staff believes that there are no current start-up costs or other
capital costs associated with the Care Labeling Rule. 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 Rule's labeling
requirements. Based on knowledge of the industry, staff believes that
much of the information required by the Rule would be included on the
product label even absent those requirements.
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\1\ All hourly rates except for ``Attach labels'' are rounded to
the nearest dollar and drawn from the U.S. Dep't of Labor, Bureau of
Labor Statistics, ``Table 1. National employment and wage data from
the Occupational Employment Statistics survey by occupation, May
2019,'' at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t01.htm. The
hourly labor cost estimate for determining care instructions is
based on mean hourly rates for Office and Administrative Support
Supervisors and the estimate for drafting and ordering labels is
based on mean hourly rates for Information and Record Clerks.
\2\ 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 97.5% of
apparel purchased in the United States is imported. With the
remaining 2.5% attributable to U.S. production at an approximate
domestic hourly wage of $12 to attach labels (derived from the U.S.
Dep't of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, ``Occupational
Employment Statistics--May 2019'' which is cited in footnote 1),
staff has calculated a weighted average hourly wage of $5.50 per
hour attributable to U.S. and foreign labor combined. Wages in major
textile exporting countries, factored into the above hourly wage
estimate, were based on data from the U.S. Department of Labor,
Bureau of Labor Statistics, available at: http://www.bls.gov/fls/#compensation.
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Request for Comment: Pursuant to Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA,
the FTC invites comments on: (1) Whether the disclosure 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 providing the required information
to consumers. All comments should be filed as prescribed in the
ADDRESSES section above, and must be received on or before January 11,
2021.
You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before January 11,
2021. Write ``Care Labeling Rule: FTC File No. P072108'' on your
comment. 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 through the https://www.regulations.gov website by following the instructions on the web-
based form provided. 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.
If you file your comment on paper, write ``Care Labeling Rule: FTC
File No. P072108'' 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 J),
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, Washington, DC 20024. If
possible, please submit your paper comment to the Commission by courier
or overnight service.
Because your comment will be placed on the public record, 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
[[Page 71902]]
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 be filed in paper form, must be clearly labeled
``Confidential,'' and must 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 on the public FTC website--as legally required by FTC Rule
4.9(b)--we cannot redact or remove your comment from the FTC website,
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 January 11,
2021. 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. 2020-25035 Filed 11-10-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P
