Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has submitted to OMB for

review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act information

collection requirements contained in its regulations under the

Comprehensive Smokeless Tobacco Health Education Act of 1986

(``Smokeless Tobacco Act'' or the ``Act''). The current Office of

Management and Budget (OMB) clearance expires on August 31, 1998. The

FTC proposes that OMB extend its approval for the regulations an

additional three years through August 31, 2001.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before September 14, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to the Office of Management and

Budget, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, New Executive

Office Building, Room 10202, Washington, DC 20503, ATTN: Edward Clarke,

Desk Officer for the Federal Trade Commission, and to Gary M.

Greenfield, Office of the General Counsel, Federal Trade Commission,

Washington, DC 20580, (202) 326-2753. All comments should be identified

as responding to this notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or

copies of the proposed information requirements should be addressed to

Nancy Warder, Attorney, Division of Advertising Practices, Bureau of

Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC 20580,

(202) 326-3048.

[[Page 43715]]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The FTC has submitted a request to OMB to

extend the existing clearance to collect information (OMB Control

Number 3084-0082) under FTC regulations promulgated pursuant to the

Smokeless Tobacco Act (16 CFR Part 307). A Federal Register Notice with

a 60-day comment period soliciting comments on this collection of

information was published on June 9, 1998 (63 FR 31479). No comments

were received.

Description of the information collection and proposed use: The

Smokeless Tobacco Act, 15 U.S.C. 4401-4408, requires, among other

things, that manufacturers, packagers, and importers of smokeless

tobacco products include health warnings on product packaging and in

advertisements. The Act also requires that each manufacturer, packager,

and importer of smokeless tobacco products submit a plan to the

Commission specifying a method to rotate, display, and distribute the

warning statement required to appear in advertising and labeling. The

Commission is required to determine whether these plans comply with the

act and implementing regulations. All the companies currently affected

by these regulations have previously filed plans, but the plan

submission requirement continues to apply in the event a company amends

its plan, or if a new company enters the market.

Estimate of information collection annual hours burden: 1,000 hours

(rounded). The FTC is reducing the estimated burden for fourteen

smokeless tobacco companies to prepare and submit amended compliance

plans from the current estimate of 2,000 hours to 1,000 hours, rounded

up from 560. Staff believes the reduced estimate is conservative. Prior

burden estimates were based on companies' experience preparing and

filing their initial plans. At this stage, however, all affected

companies have long ago filed their plans with the Commission and staff

does not anticipate that any new company will enter the market.

Additional annual reporting burdens would occur only if already

compliant companies change the way they display the warnings required

by the Smokeless Tobacco Act.

Although it is not possible to predict whether any of these

companies will seek to amend an existing approved plan (and possibly

none will), staff conservatively assumes that each company will file

one amendment per year. This estimate is conservative because, over the

past three years, only one company has voluntarily amended its plan and

the Commission changed the relevant regulations only once. The

voluntary amendment required only 40 hours to prepare, which is

considerably less time than individual companies spend preparing their

initial plans. Commission staff believes it reasonable to assume that

each company would consume approximately that amount of time to prepare

an amended plan. Based on these assumptions, the total annual hours

burden should not exceed 1,000 hours (14 companies x 40 hrs. each,

rounded to the nearest thousand).

Estimate of information collection annual cost burden: $63,000.

Labor costs: The total annualized cost to respondents should not

exceed $63,000. This is based on the assumption that management or

attorneys will account for 80% of the estimates 1,000 hours required to

rewrite or amend the plans, at an hourly rate of $75, and that clerical

support will account for the remaining time (20%) at an hourly rate of

$15. (Management and attorney time: 1,000 hours x .8 = 800 hours x

$75 = $60,000; clerical time: 1,000 hours x .20 = 200 hours x $15 =

$3,000).

Capital or other non-labor costs: None. After the Commission

approves a plan for the display of the warnings required by the

Smokeless Tobacco Act, the companies were required to make additional

submissions to the Commission only if there is a change in the way that

they choose to display the warnings. Once the companies have prepared

plates to print the required warnings on their labels, there are no

additional set-up costs associated with the display of the warnings in

labeling. Similarly, once the companies have prepared acetates of the

required warnings for advertising and promotional materials, there are

no additional set-up costs associated with printing the warnings in

those materials. These set-up costs were incurred before October 1,

1995.

The Commission knows of no annual recordkeeping cost burden

associated with the plans for the display of the warnings. The

companies may keep copies of their plans to ensure that labeling and

advertising complies with the requirements of the Smokeless Tobacco

Act. Such recordkeeping would require the use of office supplies, such

as file folders and papers, all of which the companies should have on

hand in the ordinary course of their business.

Debra A. Valentine,

General Counsel.

[FR Doc. 98-21889 Filed 8-12-98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6750-01-M