CONGRESS MAY AMEND CONTACT LENS LAW TO KEEP MARKET OPEN
Congress is debating whether to amend a consumer-protection law to keep contact lens makers from shutting internet-only sellers out of the distribution loop.
At issue is how the "Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act" (FCLCA), signed into law in 2003, is playing out in the marketplace. The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection heard testimony Sept. 15 on a proposed bill to amend FCLCA to ensure that contact lens makers don't exclude certain sellers from the market.
The bill, H.R. 5762, would compel manufacturers to make their products available "in a commercially reasonable and nondiscriminatory manner" to sellers, including "alternative channels of distribution" such as mail-order companies, internet retailers, pharmacies, buying clubs, department stores and mass merchandise outlets, regardless of whether the entities are associated with prescribers.
Under the law, a prescriber cannot require patients to purchase lenses from that prescriber or another specific entity as a condition of obtaining a prescription. Prescribers also must verify prescriptions with sellers.
The law requires the FTC to examine the competitiveness of the contact lens market and the effectiveness of "passive verification," a provision described in the commission's Contact Lens Rule that allows a prescription to be automatically verified when the prescriber does not respond to a seller's request within eight business hours.