Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Commission Divestiture Orders Information Collection Requirement

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Commission Divestiture

Orders Information Collection Requirement

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Notice of application to The Office of Management and Budget

(OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) for

clearance of a telephone survey, requests for documents, and a

questionnaire in conjunction with a study of Commission divestiture

orders in merger cases.

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SUMMARY: The application for OMB review concerns information collection

to be undertaken in a study to assess the effectiveness of Commission

divestiture orders in merger cases. The study will assist the

Commission in evaluating the effectiveness of its merger enforcement

actions. Specifically, the study will inform the Commission about

whether to modify its current divestiture procedures so as to make

divestitures more timely and effective. The study includes some

collection of information from the public by means of telephone

interviews, requests for documents, and a limited questionnaire. All

interviews will be conducted on a voluntary basis. All information will

be collected on a voluntary basis.

Staff will study a total of 49 divestitures arising out of 36

orders. Staff have already contacted nine buyers. Staff, thus, will

contact another 40 buyers (plus any subsequent buyers of the divested

assets), 36 respondents, and 147 third-parties (on average, three per

divestiture), for a total of 223 telephone interviews. Each interview

should take about one hour and 30 minutes to complete, for a total

burden estimate of approximately 335 hours.

After the telephone interviews, the buyers of divested assets and

the respondents will be asked to submit financial documents for a five-

year period beginning the year before the divestiture occurred. Only

documents prepared in the ordinary course of business will be

requested. To the extent that no such financial documents exist, staff

will not request that such documents be prepared. Because only

documents already in existence will be requested, the anticipated

burden of producing these documents will be minimal, approximately two

hours, per participant, for a total of 170 hours (49 + 36 = 85 x 2 =

170).

Staff will also ask that the respondents and buyers complete a two-

question chart that will request sales in dollars and units of the

product that was the subject of the Commission's initial concern in the

case over a five-year period beginning the year before the divestiture.

Staff estimate that the burden on each participant to provide this

information will be 4 hours, for a total of 392 hours (49 buyers + 36

respondents asked about 49 divested products = 98 x 4 = 392). The

total cumulative burden of the document production will be 562 hours

(392 + 170). The estimated total burden for the entire study is

therefore calculated to be 897 hours (335 + 562), which has been

rounded to 1000 hours to allow for small additions such as subsequent

buyers of divested assets.

DATES: Comments on the proposed study must be submitted on or before

February 28, 1997.

ADDRESSES: Send comments both to the Office of Information and

Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, New Executive

Office Building, Room 3228, Washington, D.C. 20503, ATN: Desk Officer

of the Federal Trade Commission and to the Federal Trade Commission,

Compliance Division, ATN: Kenneth Davidson, Room S 2122, N.W.,

Washington, D.C. 20508.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Kenneth Davidson, Compliance Division, Bureau of Competition, Federal

Trade Commission, Washington, D.C. 20580 (202) 326-2863.

By direction of the Commission.

Donald S. Clark,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 97-2208 Filed 1-28-97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6750-01-M