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FTC penalizes online sellers in violation of Contact Lens Rule
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The FTC announced that online retailers HollywoodColorContacts.com, WorldColorContacts.com and TopModelContacts.com and their seller, Lawrence L. Duskin, were charged with providing contact lenses to consumers without obtaining the required prescription, failing to verify the prescription information and failing to keep the records required by the Contact Lens Rule.
The California-based online seller of noncorrective, decorative contact lenses will pay a $60,000 penalty and be banned from all contact lens sales under an order from the FTC that it violated the rule since 2014, according to a press release from the FTC.
Furthermore, the FTC alleges that Duskin, in many instances, failed to maintain records of consumers’ contact lens prescriptions, requests to prescribers for verification of prescription information and communications from prescribers, as the rule requires. Additionally, the FTC alleges Duskin violated the FTC Act, as the conduct constituted unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce.
“The [Health Care Alliance for Patient Safety] commends the FTC for taking action to ban these online retailers who were in clear violation of the Contact Lens Rule and putting patients in serious danger,” alliance chairwoman Deanna Alexander, OD, FAAO, said in a press release from the alliance. “The alliance, its members, patients and patient advocates have continually communicated that violations of the rule occur and steps need to be taken to better protect patients. Today, we applaud the FTC for their attention and action to keep patients safe.”