States Sue Contact Lens Makers
Contact lens wearers are being cheated out of millions of dollars by major lens makers who conspire to raise consumer prices, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday on behalf of 22 states, including California.
Johnson & Johnson Vision Products Inc., Bausch & Lomb Inc. and CIBA Vision Corp., along with eight optometrists and their trade organizations, were named in the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.
About $600 million may have been overcharged between 1989 and 1994, said Wes Goforth, a spokesman for New York Atty. Gen. Dennis Vacco.
New York is acting as the lead for the states in the lawsuit. The action seeks compensation for an estimated 25 million consumers, Goforth said.
The optometrists are accused of pressuring manufacturers to limit access to soft contact lens prescriptions, which are necessary for consumers to purchase them from lower-priced outlets such as mail-order companies and pharmacies.
The lawsuit also charges that the optometrists tried to limit the supply of soft contact lenses to the cheaper alternative market.
“Their allegations are wrong; there is no policy of conspiracy,” said Ed Groobert, legal counsel for the 30,000-member American Optometric Assn., which is also named in the suit. CIBA of Duluth, Ga.; Johnson & Johnson of Jacksonville, Fla.; and Bausch & Lomb of Rochester N.Y. all denied the charges.
Representatives for the companies stressed that under federal guidelines, disposable contact lenses cannot be sold without a doctor’s prescription and that therefore they only supply licensed eye-care professionals who fit the lenses on the premises.
