[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 38 (Friday, February 25, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10596-10598]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-4196]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection;
Comment Request
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The FTC is soliciting public comments on proposed information
requests to beverage alcohol manufacturers. These comments will be
considered before the FTC submits a request for Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) review under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), 44
U.S.C. 3501-3520, of compulsory process orders to alcohol advertisers.
The compulsory process orders will seek information from those
companies concerning, among other things, compliance with voluntary
advertising placement provisions, sales and marketing expenditures, the
status of third-party review of complaints regarding compliance with
voluntary advertising codes and alcohol industry data collection
practices.
DATES: Comments on the proposed information requests must be received
on or before April 26, 2011.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties are invited to submit written comments
electronically or in paper form, by following the instructions in the
Request for Comments part of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section
below. Comments in electronic form should be submitted by using the
following Web link: https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/alcoholstudy2011pra (and following the instructions on the Web-based
form). Comments in paper form should be mailed or delivered to the
following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary,
Room HB113 (Annex J), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC
20580, in the manner detailed in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section
below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Janet M. Evans, Attorney, 202-326-
2125, or Carolyn L. Hann, Attorney, 202-326-2745, Division of
Advertising Practices, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade
Commission.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The FTC previously published reports on voluntary advertising self-
regulation by the alcohol industry in September 1999, September 2003,
and June 2008. The data contained in the reports was based on
information submitted to the Commission, pursuant to compulsory
process, by U.S. beverage alcohol advertisers. The FTC has authority to
compel production of this information from advertisers under Section 6
of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act), 15 U.S.C. 46. The
Commission believes that it is in the public interest to collect
updated data from alcohol advertisers on sales and marketing
expenditures, compliance with the industry's imposed self-regulatory
codes concerning advertising placement, the status of third-party
review of complaints regarding compliance with the industry's self-
regulatory advertising standards, and alcohol industry data collection
practices, and to publish a report on the data obtained.
Applicability of Paperwork Reduction Act
The Commission plans to address its information requests to the
ultimate U.S. parent of alcohol advertisers in order to ensure that no
relevant data from affiliated or subsidiary companies go unreported.
Because the number of separately incorporated companies affected by the
Commission's requests will presumably exceed ten entities, the
Commission intends to seek OMB clearance under the Paperwork Reduction
Act (PRA) before requesting any information from beverage alcohol
advertisers. Under the PRA and implementing OMB regulations, federal
agencies must obtain approval from OMB for each ``collection of
information'' they conduct or sponsor if posed to ten or more entities
within any twelve-month period. 44 U.S.C. 3502(3); 5 CFR 1320.3(c).
``Collection of information'' means agency requests or requirements
that members of the public submit reports, keep records, or provide
information to a third party. 44 U.S.C. 3501(3); 5 CFR 1320.3(c).
Request for Comments
As required by Section 3506(c)(2) of the PRA, the FTC is providing
this
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opportunity for public comment before requesting that OMB approve the
study. Specifically, the FTC invites comments on: (1) Whether the
proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of the FTC, including whether the
information will have practical utility; (2) the accuracy of the FTC's
estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information; (3)
ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to
be collected; and (4) ways to minimize the burden of collecting
information on those who are to respond, including through the use of
appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological
collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g.,
permitting electronic submission of responses. The FTC encourages
recipients of prior compulsory process orders to offer suggestions on
how the burden of the proposed collection may be reduced. All comments
should be filed as prescribed below, and must be received on or before
April 26, 2011.
Please also note that because your comment will be made public, you
are solely responsible for ensuring that it does not include any
sensitive personal information, such as any individual'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. It is also
your own responsibility to ensure that your comment does not include
any sensitive health information, such as medical records or other
individually identifiable health information. Your comment also should
not include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial
information * * * which is privileged or confidential.'' See 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). No comment, whether it contains such material or not, will
be given confidential treatment unless the comment has been filed with
the FTC Secretary; the comment is accompanied by a written
confidentiality request that complies fully with FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16
CFR 4.9(c); \1\ and the General Counsel, in his or her sole discretion,
has determined to grant the request in accordance with applicable law
and the public interest.
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\1\ 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), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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Because paper mail addressed to the FTC is subject to delay due to
heightened security screening, please consider submitting your comment
in electronic form. Comments filed in electronic form should be
submitted by using the following Web link: https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/alcoholstudy2011pra (and following the
instructions on the Web-based form). To ensure that the Commission
considers an electronic comment, you must file it on the Web-based form
at the Web link: https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/alcoholstudy2011pra. If this Notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov/search/index.jsp, you may also file an electronic
comment through that Web site. The Commission will consider all
comments that regulations.gov forwards to it. You may also visit the
FTC Web site at http://www.ftc.gov to read the Notice and the news
release describing it.
A comment filed in paper form should include the ``Alcohol Reports:
Paperwork Comment; Project No. P114503'' reference both in the text and
on the envelope, and should be mailed or delivered to the following
address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Room H-113
(Annex J), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20580. The FTC
is requesting that any comment filed in paper form be sent by courier
or overnight service, if possible, because U.S. postal mail in the
Washington area and at the Commission is subject to delay due to
heightened security precautions.
The FTC Act and other laws 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, whether filed in paper or electronic
form. Comments received will be available to the public on the FTC Web
site, to the extent practicable, at http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a matter of discretion, the Commission makes
every effort to remove home contact information for individuals from
the public comments it receives before placing those comments on the
FTC Web site. More information, including routine uses permitted by the
Privacy Act, may be found in the FTC's privacy policy, at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.shtm.
Description of the Collection of Information and Proposed Use
The FTC proposes to send information requests to the ultimate U.S.
parent companies of up to fourteen advertisers of beer, wine, or
distilled spirits (``industry members''). The requests will seek, among
other information, data regarding: (1) Sales of beverage alcohol; (2)
expenditures to advertise and promote beverage alcohol in measured and
non-measured media; (3) compliance with the 70% legal drinking age
audience composition advertising placement standard contained in the
industry's self-regulatory codes; (4) third-party or other external
compliance review mechanisms; and (5) data collection efforts,
including data collection in connection with digital and social media
marketing, and efforts to avoid collection of data from youth under the
legal drinking age of 21, to the extent industry members possess such
data.
It should be noted that subsequent to this notice, any destruction,
removal, mutilation, alteration, or falsification of documentary
evidence that may be responsive to this information collection within
the possession or control of a person, partnership, or corporation
subject to the FTC Act may be subject to criminal prosecution. 15
U.S.C. 50; see also 18 U.S.C. 1505.
Estimated Hours Burden: 11,760 hours.
The staff's estimate of the hours burden is based on the time
required to respond to each information request. Because beverage
alcohol companies vary in size, the number of products they sell, and
the extent and variety of their advertising and promotion efforts, the
staff has provided a range of the estimated hours burden. As noted
above, each company will receive information requests pertaining to
five categories of information.
Based upon its knowledge of the industry, the staff estimates, on
average, that the time required to gather, organize, format, and
produce responses to categories (1), (2), (4), and (5) will range
between 20 and 130 hours for most companies, but that the largest
companies could require as many as 560 hours for the most time-
consuming category, i.e., category (3) (placement information). The
total estimated burden per company is based on the following
assumptions:
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(1) Identify, obtain, and organize sales 30-70 hours
information, prepare response:
(2) Identify, obtain, and organize 50-130 hours
information on advertising and marketing
expenditures, prepare response:
(3) Identify, obtain, and organize 240-560 hours
placement information, prepare response:
(4) Identify, obtain, and organize 20-40 hours
information regarding compliance review,
prepare response:
(5) Identify, obtain, and organize 20-40 hours
information regarding data collection,
prepare response:
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The staff anticipates that the cumulative hours burden to respond
to the information requests will be between 360 and 840 hours per
company. Nonetheless, in order to be conservative, the staff estimates
that the burden per company for each of up to fourteen intended
recipients will be 840 hours. Accordingly, the staff estimates a total
burden for these companies of approximately 11,760 hours (14 companies
x 840 average burden hours per company). These estimates include any
time spent by separately incorporated subsidiaries and other entities
affiliated with the ultimate parent company that has received the
information request.
Estimated Cost Burden: $252,000.
It is difficult to calculate with precision the labor costs
associated with the information requests, as the costs entail varying
compensation levels of management and/or support staff among companies
of different sizes. Financial, legal, marketing, and clerical personnel
may be involved in the information collection process. The staff has
assumed that professional personnel and outside legal counsel will
handle most of the tasks involved in gathering and producing responsive
information, and has applied an average hourly wage of $300/hour for
their labor. Thus, the staff estimates that the total labor costs per
company will range between $108,000 ($300 x 360 hours) and $252,000
($300 x 840 hours).
The staff estimates that the capital or other non-labor costs
associated with the information requests will be minimal. Although the
information requests may necessitate that industry members maintain the
requested information provided to the Commission, they should already
have in place the means to compile and maintain business records.
By direction of the Commission.
Donald S. Clark,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2011-4196 Filed 2-24-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P