(a) The CDO, or the CDO's designee, will consider the facts and circumstances presented in each application, including but not limited to:

(1) The nature and extent of the filer's efforts to collect and retain the required information;

(2) The degree to which the filer attempted to anticipate and preempt any problems in collecting and retaining the required information;

(3) The filer's prior data reporting history, including whether the filer previously failed to submit a report or requested an exemption, and if so, whether such exemption was granted;

(4) The degree to which the circumstances are beyond the filer's control or are extraordinary; and

(5) The degree to which compliance has been rendered impracticable or impossible (e.g., due to natural disaster or data loss).

(b) The filer bears the burden to demonstrate that the reporting requirement would result in undue hardship.

(c) Circumstances that generally will not form the basis of a finding of undue hardship include, but are not limited to:

(1) A filer's number of establishments alone;

(2) A filer's lack of knowledge about the reporting requirements;

(3) Routine or purposeful data expungement by the filer or a third party; and

(4) A filer's failure to plan for adequate data security, maintenance, or transfer (e.g., data loss due to a change in vendor or employee succession where the filer or vendor failed to back up the data).