Sec. 0.469  Advance payments.

    (a)(1) The Commission may not require advance payment of estimated 
FOIA fees except as provided in subsection (a)(2) or where the 
Commission estimates or determines that allowable charges that a 
requester may be required to pay are likely to exceed

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$250.00 and the requester has no history of payment. Where allowable 
charges are likely to exceed $250.00 and the requester has a history of 
prompt payment of FOIA fees the Commission may notify the requester of 
the estimated cost and obtain satisfactory assurance of full payment.
    (2) Where a requester has previously failed to pay a fee charged in 
a timely fashion (i.e., within 30 days of the date of the billing), the 
Commission may require the requester to pay the full amount owed plus 
any applicable interest as provided in Sec. 0.468, and to make an 
advance payment of the full amount of the estimated fee before the 
Commission begins to process a new request or a pending request from 
that requester.
    (3) When the Commission acts under paragraph (a) (1) or (2) of this 
section, the administrative time limits prescribed in subsection (a)(6) 
of the FOIA (i.e., 10 working days from receipt of initial requests and 
20 working days from receipt of appeals from initial denials, plus 
permissible extensions of these time limits) will begin only after the 
agency has received the fee payments described above.
    (b) [Reserved]
[ 53 FR 39094 , Oct. 5, 1988]