The Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement with an Internet marketer and its manager that will put a stop to their allegedly illegal practice of selling cosmetic contact lenses to consumers without prescriptions.
The settlement with Da Young Kim and Gothic Lens LLC requires them to pay a civil penalty of $50,000. Kim will sell her 2008 BMW in partial satisfaction of the judgment, and the rest will suspended because of the defendants’ inability to pay.
The defendants sold theatrical and Halloween-themed cosmetic contact lenses online. The FTCcharged that they violated federal law by selling contact lenses without obtaining consumers’ contact lens prescriptions or verifying their prescriptions directly with the prescribers, and by failing to keep adequate records.
Under the Contact Lens Rule, which the FTC administers, sellers must verify that a consumer has a valid prescription for all contact lenses, including cosmetic lenses. The improper use of contact lenses, whether they are corrective or not, can cause corneal ulcers, corneal abrasions, vision impairment, and blindness. The settlement with the Gothic Lens defendants is the FTC’s sixth enforcement action since it issued the Contact Lens Rule in 2004.
The settlement order also prohibits the defendants from selling contact lenses without obtaining or verifying prescriptions directly from the prescribers, from failing to maintain records of prescriptions and verifications, and from violating the Contact Lens Rule.
Under the settlement, if it is determined that the financial information the defendants gave the FTC was untruthful, the full amount of the judgment will become due. The settlement also contains various record keeping provisions to assist the FTC in monitoring the defendants’ compliance.
