Antitrust Lawyer Blog

The Federal Trade Commission staff took action earlier this week to increase compliance with the Contact Lens Rule by sellers of non-corrective, decorative/cosmetic contact lenses. In 2003, Congress enacted the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act, which imposed new prescription release and verification requirements on prescribers and sellers of contact lenses. In July 2004, the Commission issued the Contact Lens Rule to implement the Act.

On November 9, 2005, Congress amended the law to state that all contact lenses, including cosmetic or colored contacts, are restricted medical devices. A prescription from a medical professional is required to purchase a restricted medical device. According to the Food and Drug Administration, “[d]ecorative contact lenses present significant risks of blindness and other eye injury if they are distributed without a prescription or without proper fitting by a qualified eye care professional.”

On June 27, 2006, the FTC staff sent 18 warning letters to online sellers of cosmetic or colored contact lens. Most of the sellers to whom staff wrote claim on their web sites that cosmetic contacts are non-prescription or that they do not require a prescription. Such advertising claims violate the Contact Lens Rule. It also appears that most of the sellers to whom the FTC staff wrote may not be verifying that those who attempt to buy cosmetic contacts from them have valid prescriptions. The sale of cosmetic contact lenses without either obtaining a copy of a valid prescription from the customer or verifying his or her prescription information with the prescriber constitutes a violation of the Rule. The letters urge the cosmetic contact lens sellers to review the Rule and revise their practices as necessary to ensure they are complying with its requirements and warn them that violations of the Rule are punishable by civil penalties of up to $11,000 per violation.

The Federal Trade Commission today called on social networking sites to make sure children visiting their sites can stay safe and their parents can protect them. Testifying for the FTC, Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour told the House Committee on Energy and Commerce,Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation that there is a “need for social networking Web sites – individually, collectively, and, most importantly, expeditiously – to develop and implement safety features to protect children who visit their sites and empower parents to protect their children when they do so.” Harbour also emphasized that, “the Federal Trade Commission is committed to helping create a safer online experience for children.”

The testimony describes FTC actions to protect children online through consumer education and law enforcement. Last month, the FTC provided advice for parents and children about safely using social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and others. The tips are featured on one of the most popular sections of OnGuard Online, an online education resource covering safe and secure computing.

“At the same time that social networking Web sites offer online communication, camaraderie, and community among teens and tweens, they, like other activities on the Internet, also can pose risks,” the testimony states. “Because the information that children post on their online journals, web logs or 'blogs' can be accessed by other Internet users, social networking Web sites raise heightened privacy and security concerns. In particular, sexual predators may use the information that children provide on social networking sites to identify, contact, and exploit them, unless these sites are constructed to reduce access to this information, or users themselves take steps to limit unwanted access.”