FTC to Prioritize Enforcement of Contact Lens Expiration Laws

AOA was successful in obtaining language in a Senate Financial Services appropriations bill that will impact how the FTC will enforce the laws related to expired contact lenses.

The language, “encourages the agency to consider modifications that prioritize patient safety and strengthen enforcement mechanisms aimed at preventing contact lens sales using expired or fake prescriptions.”

Retailers like 1-800 Contacts and Contacts.com claim that the language gives optometrists an edge because it places “burdensome prescription verification procedures” on them, according to a Congressional Quarterly article.

In addition to its work on the appropriations bill, AOA is also backing S. 2777, a bill that focuses on strengthening patient health safeguards that have been undermined, and often ignored, by unscrupulous online contact lens sellers.

The bill would:

• Hold sellers accountable for illegal sales tactics and false claims, and make increased enforcement to safeguard public health a priority for the Federal Trade Commission.
• Establish a live patient-safety hotline allowing doctors to provide sellers with patient health information and ensure that the doctor-patient relationship is respected.
• Ban use by internet sellers of disruptive automated “robocalls” into doctors’ offices as the mechanism for verifying patient prescription information, and allow doctors to choose live phone calls or emails from sellers instead.
• Ensure contact lenses must be dispensed exactly as the prescription is written by the doctor.
• Direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the public health and health care cost impact of internet seller abuses.
• Increase fines to sellers to $40,000 per infraction.

AOA is encouraging ODs to get involved by modifying a draft letter they provide. Learn more here.