1-800 Contacts Celebrates Strengthened Consumer Rights in Contact Lens Rule

We’re excited about the announcement of an amendment to the Contact Lens Rule (CLR) and want you to know all about what it means for you.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is dedicated to protecting your rights, and its support of the CLR is an example of this commitment. Since 2004, the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act (FCLCA) has mandated prescription release requirements for eye doctors. The updated CLR will now provide meaningful enforcement of these requirements, ensuring your choice is put ahead of prescriber profits. 

The CLR has always required prescribers to give you a copy of your contact lens prescription, but the FTC believed more was required to ensure prescribers were compliant. Consequently, the FTC amended the CLR to require prescribers to get a signed confirmation that you were given a copy of your contact lens prescription. With this change, prescribers are more accountable for ensuring you have access to your contact lens prescription.

Prior to the CLR, prescribers weren’t automatically releasing prescriptions to patients, thus increasing the likelihood that you would purchase from them. We believe the addition of the signed confirmation will ensure your right to receive your contact lens prescription isn’t ignored or disregarded so you can select a contact lens retailer based on your preference – convenience, price, product selection, catchy jingle, or any other factor.

Our CEO had this to say: “The Contact Lens Rule is incredibly important not just for consumers but for the continued modernization of the vision industry. It’s essential that consumers are guaranteed access to their prescriptions, as has been the case in general healthcare for many years. From the very beginning, 1-800 Contacts has created new ways for consumers to purchase contact lenses by providing innovation that forced the contact lens industry to evolve into one that puts consumers first.”

We’re excited about the choice this gives you to choose where you buy your contacts and are happy to see the FTC put this law into effect.