[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 16, Volume 2]
[Revised as of January 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 16CFR1015.9]

[Page 41-43]
 
                     TITLE 16--COMMERCIAL PRACTICES
 
             CHAPTER II--CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION
 
PART 1015--PROCEDURES FOR DISCLOSURE OR PRODUCTION OF INFORMATION UNDER 
THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT--Table of Contents
 
        Subpart A--Production or Disclosure Under 5 U.S.C. 552(a)
 
Sec.  1015.9  Fees for production of records.

    (a) The Commission will provide, at no charge, certain routine 
information. For other Commission responses to information requests, the 
Secretary shall determine and levy fees for duplication, search, review, 
and other services, in accordance with this section.
    (b) Fees shall be paid by check or money order, payable to the 
Treasury

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of the United States and sent to the Commission.
    (c) The following definitions shall apply under this section:
    (1) Direct costs means those expenditures which an agency actually 
incurs in searching for and duplicating (and in the case of commercial 
requesters, reviewing) documents to respond to a FOIA request.
    (2) Search includes all time spent looking for material that is 
responsive to a request, including page-by-page or line-by-line 
identification of material within documents.
    (3) Duplication refers to the process of making a copy of a document 
necessary to respond to a FOIA request.
    (4) Review refers to the process of examining documents located in 
response to a commercial use request to determine whether any portion of 
any document located is permitted to be withheld.
    (5) Commercial use request refers to a request that seeks 
information for a use or purpose that furthers commercial, trade, or 
profit interests.
    (6) Educational institution refers to an entity organized and 
operated exclusively for educational purposes, whose purpose is 
scholarly.
    (7) Non-commercial scientific institution refers to an entity 
organized and operated exclusively for the purpose of conducting 
scientific research, the results of which are not intended to promote 
any particular product or industry.
    (8) Representative of the news media refers to any person or 
organization which regularly publishes or disseminates news to the 
public, in print or electronically.
    (d) A commercial use request may incur charges for duplication, 
search, and review. The following requests may incur charges only for 
duplication: A request from an educational institution for records not 
sought for commercial use; a request from a non-commercial scientific 
institution for records not sought for commercial use; a request from a 
representative of the news media. Any other request may incur charges 
for duplication and search.
    (e) The following fee schedule will apply:
    (1) Copies of documents reproduced on a standard photocopying 
machine: $0.10 per page.
    (2) File searches conducted by clerical personnel: $3.00 for each 
one-quarter hour (a fraction thereof to be counted as one-quarter hour). 
Any special costs of sending records from field locations to 
headquarters for review will be included in search fees, billed at the 
clerical personnel rate.
    (3) File searches conducted by non-clerical or professional or 
managerial personnel: $4.90 for each one-quarter hour (a fraction 
thereof to be counted as one-quarter hour).
    (4) Review of records: $4.90 for each one-quarter hour (a fraction 
thereof to be counted as one-quarter hour).
    (5) Computerized records: $0.10 per page of computer printouts or, 
for central processing, $0.32 per second of central processing unit 
(CPU) time; for printer, $10.00 per 1,000 lines; and for computer 
magnetic tapes or discs, direct costs.
    (6) Postage: Direct-cost basis for mailing requested materials, if 
the requester wants special handling or if the volume or dimensions of 
the materials requires special handling.
    (7) Microfiche: $0.35 for each frame.
    (8) Other charges for materials requiring special reproducing or 
handling, such as photographs, slides, blueprints, video and audio tape 
recordings, or other unusual materials: direct-cost basis.
    (9) Any other service: An appropriate fee established by the 
Secretary, based on direct costs.
    (f) Fees shall be waived as follows:
    (1) No automatic fee waiver shall apply to commercial use requests.
    (2) The first $10.00 of duplication costs shall be waived for 
requests from educational institutions, non-commercial scientific 
institutions, and representatives of the news media.
    (3) For all other requests, the first $10.00 of duplication costs 
and the first $40 of search costs shall be waived.
    (4) The Secretary shall waive or reduce fees whenever disclosure of 
the requested information is in the public interest because it is likely 
to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or 
activities of the

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government and disclosure of the requested information is not primarily 
in the commercial interest of the requester.
    (5) In making a determination under paragraph (f)(4) of this 
section, the Secretary shall consider the following factors:
    (i) The subject of the request: Whether the subject of the requested 
records concerns the operations or activities of the government.
    (ii) The informative value of the information to be disclosed: 
Whether the disclosure is likely to contribute to an understanding of 
government operations or activities.
    (iii) The contribution to an understanding of the subject by the 
general public likely to result from disclosure: Whether disclosure of 
the requested information will contribute to public understanding.
    (iv) The significance of the contribution to public understanding: 
Whether the disclosure is likely to contribute significantly to public 
understanding of government operations or activities.
    (v) The existence and magnitude of a commercial interest: Whether 
the requester has a commercial interest that would be furthered by the 
requested disclosure; and, if so
    (vi) The primary interest in disclosure: Whether the magnitude of 
the identified commercial interest of the requester is sufficiently 
large, in comparison with the public interest in disclosure, that 
disclosure is primarily in the commercial interest of the requester.
    (6) Any determination made by the Secretary concerning fee waivers 
may be appealed by the requester to the Commission's General Counsel in 
the manner described at Sec.  1015.7.
    (g) Collection of fees shall be in accordance with the following:
    (1) Interest will be charged on amounts billed, starting on the 31st 
day following the day on which the requester received the bill. Interest 
will be at the rate prescribed in 31 U.S.C. 3717.
    (2) Search fees will be imposed (on requesters charged for search 
time) even if no responsive documents are located or if the search leads 
to responsive documents that are withheld under an exemption to the 
Freedom of Information Act. Such fees shall not exceed $25.00, unless 
the requester has authorized a higher amount.
    (3) Before the Commission begins processing a request or discloses 
any information, it will require advance payment if:
    (i) Charges are estimated to exceed $250.00 and the requester has no 
history of payment and cannot provide satisfactory assurance that 
payment will be made; or
    (ii) A requester failed to pay the Commission for a previous Freedom 
of Information Act request within 30 days of the billing date.
    (4) The Commission will aggregate requests, for the purposes of 
billing, whenever it reasonably believes that a requester or group of 
requesters is attempting to separate a request into more than one 
request for the purpose of evading fees.
    (5) If a requester's total bill is less than $9.00, the Commission 
will not request payment.

[52 FR 28979, Aug. 5, 1987, as amended at 62 FR 46198, Sept. 2, 1997]