For purposes of assessing fees, the FOIA establishes four categories of requesters: Commercial use requesters, educational and non-commercial scientific institution requesters; news media requesters, and all other requesters.

(a) Commercial use requesters. When ABMC receives a request for documents for commercial use, it will assess charges that recover the full direct costs of searching for, reviewing for release, and duplicating the records sought. Commercial use requesters are not entitled to 2 hours of free search time nor 100 free pages of reproduction of documents.

(b) Educational and noncommercial scientific institution requesters. Requesters in this category who meet the criteria in § 404.6(g) or (h) are entitled to two free hours of search time and the first 100 pages of duplication without charge. To be eligible for inclusion in this category, a requester must show that the request is authorized by and under the auspices of a qualifying institution and that the records are not sought for a commercial use, but are sought in furtherance of scholarly (if the request is from an educational institution) or scientific (if the request is from a non-commercial scientific institution) research.

(c) Requesters who are representatives of the news media. Requesters in this category who meet the criteria in § 404.6(i) are entitled to two free hours of search time and the first 100 pages of duplication without charge. To be eligible for inclusion in this category, a requester must show that the records are not sought for a commercial use, but are sought in furtherance of the news dissemination function of the requester.

(d) All other requesters. ABMC shall charge requesters who do not fit into any of the categories in paragraphs (a) through (c) of this section fees that recover the full reasonable direct cost of searching for and reproducing records that are responsive to the request, except that the first 100 pages of reproduction and the first 2 hours of search time shall be furnished without charge.