Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act

• Industry-first solution integrates KYB with bank account verification, streamlining
  SAN FRANCISCO, May 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Persona today launched a know your seller (KYS) solution designed to help marketplace businesses comply with the INFORM Consumers Act,  bipartisan legislation passed to combat global marketplace fraud last estimated to exceed $500 billion annually1.
• KYS was purpose-built for marketplaces on top of Persona's automated know your business (KYB) solution launched last June.
• By automating extremely manual, complex, and error-prone processes, Persona not only helps marketplaces comply with the INFORM Consumer Act, but also enables them to enhance trust and deepen competitive differentiation."
• An out-of-the-box configuration designed for the INFORM Consumers Act means marketplaces can meet compliance requirements in days, rather than months, with minimal engineering resources.

• LAS VEGAS, Nov. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Contact lens consumers are urged to contact their U.S.
• The optometry industry has sought to restore its grip on American consumers after patients won the right to shop around when buying contact lenses with the passage of the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act in 2003.
• This act required optometrists to provide, unprompted, a copy of the contact lens prescription to the patient at the end of the contact lens fitting.
• Founded in 1995, Lens.com, Inc. is the nation's 2ndlargest online retailer for contact lenses ,offering consumers all the popular brands of contact lenses at wholesale prices with convenient quick delivery.

• How do the Contact Lens Consumer Act and the Contact Lens Rule apply to that interaction?
• A renewal or extension including one where you determine that no change in the existing prescription is required counts as a contact lens fitting under the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act and the Contact Lens Rule.
• Under the Act and the Rule, you cant require payment from a patient as a condition of providing or verifying their contact lens prescription.
• Prescribers also cant require patients to buy contact lenses, or sign a waiver or release, as a condition of releasing or verifying a prescription.

FTC Announces Final Amendments to the Agency’s Contact Lens Rule

Changes will help more patients comparison shop for contact lenses

• As detailed in a final notice of rulemaking to be published shortly, after a contact lens fitting, prescribers will be required to do one of the following to confirm that a patient received their prescription:
  • request that the patient acknowledge receipt of the contact lens prescription by signing a separate confirmation statement;
  • request that the patient sign a prescriber-retained copy of the prescription that contains a statement confirming the patient has received it;
  • request that the patient sign a prescriber-retained copy of the sales receipt for the examination that contains a statement confirming the patient received the prescription; or
  • provide the patient with a digital copy of the prescription, and retain evidence that it was sent, received, or made accessible, downloadable, and printable.
• The Final Rule includes several new requirements for sellers as well. To address concerns about sellers verifying prescriptions by leaving incomplete or incomprehensible automated telephone messages with prescribers, sellers who use automated telephone messages for verification must:
  • record the entire call and preserve the complete recording;
  • start the call by identifying it as a prescription verification request made in accordance with the Contact Lens Rule;
  • deliver the verification message in a slow and deliberate manner and at a volume that the prescriber can understand; and
  • make the message repeatable at the prescriber’s option.
  • Eye doctors are required by law to provide every patient with a copy of his or her contact lens prescription, allowing patients to comparison shop for lenses, said Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Andrew Smith.
  • This rule change will help to ensure that eye doctors fulfill their obligations, and will facilitate FTC enforcement of these important requirements.
  • It also incorporates changes made in response to public comments received following a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking published in May 2019.
  • The method of presentation and related disclosure must be provided before requesting the prescribers contact information to verify the prescription.
  • These changes should reduce the incidence of sellers selling consumers lenses other than those that were prescribed.
  • The Contact Lens Rule In place since August 2004, the Rule imposes obligations on both eye-care prescribers and contact lens sellers.
  • The Rule also requires that contact lens vendors sell contact lenses only in accordance with a valid prescription the seller has received from either the patient or prescriber, or has verified via direct communication with the prescriber.