Thursday, August 27, 2015

Battle about Unilateral Pricing of Contact Lenses Now in Federal Appeals Court

"A legal battle over a hotly contested Utah law banning minimum prices for contact lenses is set to come before a federal appeals court on Thursday," reports U.S. News & World Report in an Associated Press post. "The nation's largest contact lens companies are asking the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver to strike down the measure that could have wide-ranging effects on the $4 billion industry. Alcon Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson and Bausch & Lomb call the law a brazen overreach written specifically to help Utah-based discount seller 1-800 Contacts. Lawmakers deny that. The state's attorney general contends the contacts manufacturers are wrongly driving up prices." Read more.

Meanwhile, "as part of the Federal Trade Commission's systematic review of all current FTC rules and guides, the FTC is seeking public comment on the efficiency, costs, benefits, and impact of the Contact Lens Rule," notes the Yuma News Now. "The Rule, effective since August 2004, helps to promote competition in the contact lens market by requiring eye care prescribers to provide a copy of a consumer’s prescription to the consumer after a contact lens fitting is completed and verify with, or provide prescriptions to, authorized contact lens sellers. It also mandates that a contact lens seller may sell contact lenses only in accordance with a prescription the seller has received from the patient or prescriber, or has verified via direct communication with the prescriber. The Commission vote approving the Federal Register Notice was 5-0. It is available on the FTC's website and as a link to this press release and will be published in the Federal Register soon." Read more.

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