The Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act increases
consumers’ ability to shop around when buying contact lenses.
The Act gives consumers certain rights, imposes duties on
contact lens prescribers and sellers, and requires the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) to develop and enforce implementing
rules. The FTC issued the Contact Lens Rule in July 2004 to
spell out the Act’s requirements.The Contact Lens Rule requires prescribers to give patients a
copy of their contact lens prescriptions at the end of a contact
lens fitting, even if the patient doesn’t ask for it. A patient
who wants to buy contact lenses from another seller then may
give the prescription to that seller. If a consumer doesn’t give
his prescription to that seller, the seller must verify the
prescription before selling the lenses. The verification process works like this: the consumer
provides prescription information to the seller, who then
submits it to the prescriber in a verification request. The
prescriber has eight-business-hours to respond. If the
prescriber does not respond within the required time, the
prescription is verified automatically, and the seller may
provide contact lenses to the consumer.
Sellers may provide contact lenses only in accordance with a
valid prescription that is directly presented to the seller or
verified with the prescriber. That means sellers may provide
contact lenses when the consumer presents his prescription in
person, by fax, or by email if the prescription has been scanned
and attached to the email. The consumer also can authorize the
seller to verify his prescription via “direct communication”
with the prescriber. (See next section, “What is direct
communication?”.)
What is direct
communication?
“Direct communication”
is a completed communication by
telephone, facsimile or electronic mail.
Direct communication
by telephone requires reaching and
speaking to the intended recipient, or leaving a
voice message on the telephone answering machine
of the intended recipient.
Direct communication
by facsimile or electronic mail
requires that the intended recipient actually
receive the facsimile or electronic mail
message.
For more details about
compliance, see “Q&A:
The Contact Lens Rule and the Eyeglass Rule”
at www.ftc.gov. |