For Your Information:
May 24, 2002
Publication of Federal Register notice:
The Commission has approved
the publication of a Federal Register notice related to
the FTC's proposal to amend the Telemarketing
Sales Rule (TSR) by, among other things,
establishing a centralized national "Do-Not-Call"
registry. This proposal was announced on January 22, 2002.
As detailed in this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR)
and Request for Public Comment, which will be published
shortly and is currently available on the Commission's Web
site, the FTC is proposing user fees to cover the costs of
establishing and maintaining the registry, if one is
implemented by the Commission. The user fees would be
incorporated in a new section - 310.9 - of the TSR, 16 CFR
Part 310. This new section would impose user fees on
telemarketers, and those on behalf of whom they conduct
telemarketing services, for their access to the registry
in order to "scrub" their call lists to avoid calling
consumers who have indicated their desire not to receive
telemarketing calls.
The NPR contains additional
supplementary information that may be useful to members of
the public wishing to comment on the user fee proposal.
This information includes a background summary of the
Commission's work in developing the proposed amendments to
the TSR, justification for the proposed implementation of
user fees to help cover the cost of managing the proposed
registry, a discussion of how user fees might be
calculated, and a description of telemarketer access to
the proposed national registry. The NPR invites written
comments on the issues raised by the proposed changes, and
requests answers to specific questions set forth in
section VIII of the NPR.
Written comments on the
notice will be accepted until June 28, 2002. Six paper
copies of each written comment should be submitted to the
Office of the Secretary, Federal Trade Commission, 600
Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. The FTC
is also accepting electronic copies on disk, with
submission procedures outlined in the notice, as well as
by e-mail at:
userfee@ftc.gov. All comments should be identified
as "Telemarketing Rulemaking - User Fee Comment. FTC File
No. R41101." The vote to approve publication of the
Federal Register notice was 5-0. (FTC File No. R41101,
staff contact is David M. Torok, Bureau of Consumer
Protection, 202-323-3075; see press release dated
January 22, 2002.)
Release of
Commission report:
The Federal Trade
Commission's annual report on cigarette sales and
advertising for 2000 shows that cigarette sales
increased slightly (0.5 percent) from 1999 levels, while
advertising and promotional expenditures increased
significantly. According to the report, the six largest
cigarette manufacturers spent $9.57 billion on advertising
and promotional expenditures in 2000, a 16.2 percent
increase from the $8.24 billion spent in 1999. The
industry's total expenditures were the most ever reported
to the Commission.
The 2000 report, released
today, contains sales and marketing statistics for
calendar year 2000 and historical data dating back to
1963, the year the FTC began collecting information from
the cigarette industry. In 2000, the manufacturers
reported to the Commission that they sold 413.5 billion
cigarettes domestically, 2.2 billion more than they sold
in 1999. The largest category of advertising and
promotional expenditures was promotional allowances, which
include payments to retailers for shelf space. Cigarette
companies spent $3.91 billion in 2000 on promotional
allowances (40.9 percent of total industry spending), up
from $3.54 billion in 1999.
Spending on retail
value-added - which includes both multiple-pack promotions
("buy one, get one free") and non-cigarette items, such as
hats or lighters, given away at the point-of-sale with the
purchase of cigarettes - rose from $2.56 billion in 1999
to $3.52 billion in 2000, an increase of 37.4 percent. At
the same time, expenditures for distribution of branded
specialty items (such as lighters) through the mail, at
promotional events, or by any means other than at the
point-of-sale with the purchase of cigarettes, declined
from $335.7 million in 1999 to $264.8 million in 2000, a
decrease of 21.1 percent.
Money spent giving
cigarette samples to the public declined from $33.7
million in 1999 to $22.3 million in 2000, a decrease of
33.8 percent. In contrast, spending on discount coupons
increased from $531 million in 1999 to $705.3 million in
2000.
The industry's expenditures
on advertising in newspapers was $51.7 million in 2000, an
increase of 1.4 percent from 1999 to 2000. Spending on
magazine advertising decreased from $377.4 million in 1999
to $294.9 million, while outdoor advertising expenditures
dropped from $53.8 million to $9.8 million and transit
advertising fell from $5.6 million in 1999 to just $4,000
in 2000. Point-of-sale advertising increased from $329.4
million in 1999 to $347 million in 2000. The cigarette
companies reported a total of $92.9 million for direct
mail advertising in 2000, 1.8 percent less than the $94.6
million reported in 1999. The industry reported spending
$949,000 on Internet advertising in 2000. Spending on
public entertainment (e.g., sponsorship of concerts, auto
racing, and fishing tournaments) was $309.6 million in
2000, an increase of 15.8 percent from 1999.
The Commission vote to
issue the report, which is available on the FTC's Web
site, was 5-0. (FTC File No. 012-3236; staff contact is
Shira D. Modell, Bureau of Consumer Protection,
202-326-3116.) |