By Nathalie Voit
Vision Path, the manufacturer of direct-to-consumer contact lens company Hubble, was ordered to pay $3.5 million in penalties and redress in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Jan. 28.
The FTC accused New York City-based Vision Path, the online seller of Hubble lenses, of violating federal regulations, including the Contact Lens Rule and the FTC Act, to illegally boost sales.
The lawsuit alleged the contact maker broke the Contact Lens Rule “in several ways, including failing to obtain prescriptions and properly verify prescription information, and by substituting Hubble lenses for those actually prescribed to consumers.”
The agency also said the company breached the FTC Act when it hid biased reviews of its lenses from consumers, who were unaware they were written by reviewers who were compensated for their reviews, “and, in at least one instance, by one of its own executives.”
“Hubble’s business model boosted its bottom line but created needless risk for its customers’ eye health,” said Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection Samuel Levine.
“Today’s action makes clear that firms will pay a price for deceiving their customers, flouting the Contact Lens Rule, and using misleading reviews.”
The suit claimed Vision Path failed to adhere to the FTC’s Contact Lens Rule (CLR), which requires sellers to obtain a copy of the consumer’s prescription before selling lenses or verify the patient’s prescription information with the consumer’s provider.
Once the verification request goes through, sellers can sell the lenses identified in the verification, pending that the prescriber does not deny the request or correct the prescription within eight business hours. The CLR also forbids sellers from altering the prescription.
According to the complaint, Vision Path violated this rule by 1) “altering contact lens prescriptions from the prescribed brands to Hubble lenses; 2) failing to obtain or properly verify contact lens prescription information submitted by consumers, and 3) selling contact lenses after prescription verification requests were denied.”
The complaint also said the contact lens manufacturer violated the FTC Act by 1) “making deceptive representations that the company would ensure consumers received lenses with valid and accurate prescriptions, as determined by their eye care provider, 2) falsely claiming that certain consumer reviews were independent when they were not, and 3) failing to disclose material connections between Hubble and some reviewers.”
The $3.5 million settlement is the largest of its kind. Hubble will be charged with a $1.5 million civil penalty and $2 million in redress to customers who were harmed by wearing the company’s lenses, which were not properly verified and, in many cases, resulted in customers wearing an incorrect prescription or lenses for which they had not been fitted.
The consent order also bars Hubble from engaging in any illegal conduct enumerated in the complaint, which the company had done so since October 2016, according to the suit.
