Commercial use request means an information request by an individual or entity seeking information for a use or purpose that furthers the commercial, trade, or profit interests of that individual or entity.

Direct costs means the costs FCA incurs in searching for and reproducing documents to respond to a FOIA request. For a commercial use request, it also means the costs we incur in reviewing documents to respond to the request. Direct costs include the pro rated cost of the salary of the employee performing the work (based on the basic rate of pay plus 16 percent to cover benefits) and the cost of operating reproduction equipment. They do not include overhead expenses.

Educational institution means a preschool, a public or private elementary or secondary school, an institution of undergraduate or graduate higher education, an institution of professional education, or an institution of vocational education that runs a program of scholarly research.

Noncommercial scientific institution means a nonprofit institution that conducts scientific research that is not intended to promote any particular product or industry.

Pages mean 8-1/2 × 11 inch or 11 × 14 inch paper copies.

Representative of the news media means any person actively gathering news for an entity that publishes or broadcasts news to the public. News means information about current events or of current interest to the public.

Reproduce (or reproduction) means copying a record.

Review means looking at documents found in response to a FOIA request to decide whether any portion should be withheld. It does not include the time spent resolving legal or policy issues.

Search means all time spent looking for material responsive to a FOIA request, including page-by-page or line-by-line identification of material within documents.

Depending on your identity and the purpose of your request, the FCA may charge you the direct costs of searching for responsive records, reviewing the records, and reproducing them. If necessary, we will seek clarification before classifying the request.

(a) Educational institutions and noncommercial scientific institutions. We charge fees for reproduction costs only. The first 100 pages are free. You must show that the request is sanctioned by an educational or noncommercial scientific institution and that you seek the records for scholarly or scientific research, not for a commercial use.

(b) Representatives of the news media. We charge fees for reproduction costs only. The first 100 pages are free. You must be a representative of the news media, and the request must not be made for a commercial use. A request for records supporting news distribution is not a request for a commercial use.

(c) Commercial use. We charge the direct cost for search, review, and reproduction. Commercial use requesters are not entitled to free search time or free reproduction. We will charge you even if we do not disclose any records.

(d) All others. The first 2 hours of search time and the first 100 pages of reproduction are free. After that, we will charge you for search and reproduction costs. We will charge you for a search even if we do not disclose any records.

(e) Fee table. The fee information in paragraphs (a) through (d) of this section is presented in the table to this paragraph. You may apply for a waiver if your request is not mostly in your commercial interest and the disclosure is in the public interest. See § 602.13.

(a) FCA may charge:

(1) For manual searches for records and for review, the pro rated cost of the salary of the employee doing the work.

(2) For computer searches for records, the direct costs of computer search time and supply or material costs.

(3) For each page made by photocopy or similar method, fifteen cents a page, and for other forms of copying, the direct costs.

(4) The direct costs of elective services, such as certifying records as true copies or sending records by special methods.

(b) We will not charge fees when total assessed fees are less than $15.00.

(c) You must pay by personal check, bank draft drawn on a United States bank, or postal money order made payable to the Treasury of the United States.

(d) We treat a request about yourself under Privacy Act fee rules.

(e) The information in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section is presented in the table to this paragraph. Direct costs means the costs FCA incurs in searching for, reviewing, and reproducing documents to respond to a request. Direct costs include pro rated salary and reproduction costs. We will not charge fees when they total less than $15.00.

(f) We will not assess fees if we fail to comply with any time limit under the FOIA or these regulations, and have not timely notified the requester, in writing, that an unusual circumstance exists. If an unusual circumstance exists, and timely, written notice is given to the requester, we may be excused an additional 10 working days before fees are automatically waived under this paragraph.

(g) If we determine that unusual circumstances apply and more than 5,000 pages are necessary to respond to a request, we may charge fees if we provided a timely, written notice to the requester and discussed with the requester via mail, Email, or telephone (or made at least three good-faith attempts to do so) how the requester could effectively limit the scope of the request.

(h) If a court has determined that exceptional circumstances exist, a failure to comply with time limits imposed by these regulations or FOIA shall be excused for the length of time provided by court order.

We may waive or reduce fees if disclosure is not mostly in your commercial interest but, instead, is in the public interest because it will advance public understanding of the Federal government's operations or activities.

(a) If fees will be more than $25.00 and you have not told us in advance that you will pay estimated fees, we will tell you the estimated amount and ask that you agree to pay it. Except as noted in this section, we will begin processing the FOIA request when we receive your agreement to pay.

(b) If estimated fees exceed $250.00 and you have a history of promptly paying fees charged for information requests, we may respond to your request based on your agreement to pay.

(c) If estimated fees exceed $250.00 and you have no history of paying fees, we may require you to pay in advance.

(d) If you have previously failed to pay fees for information requests or paid them late, you must pay any fees still owed, plus interest calculated under § 602.15, and the estimated fees before we will respond to a new or a pending request.

(e) If we require advance payment or an advance agreement to pay, we will not consider your request to be received and will not respond to it until you meet the requirement.

If you fail to pay fees on time, FCA may charge you interest starting on the 31st calendar day following the date we bill you. We will charge you interest at the rate allowed by law (31 U.S.C. 3717) on the billing date.

You may not avoid paying fees by filing multiple requests at the same time. When FCA reasonably believes that you, alone or with others, are breaking down one request into a series of requests to avoid fees, we will combine the requests and charge accordingly.