GOC acts against eBay for 'aiding and abetting' CL sales

The General Optical Council has announced that it is prosecuting eBay for 'aiding and abetting' contact lens sales on its UK web site, without the involvement of a qualified optician.

The internet giant has responded by telling optician it will contest the action, and calling the Council's claims 'libellous'.

A statement from the GOC said there were more than 200 contact lens sales on eBay.co.uk, ranging from prescription daily disposables to 360-day colour lenses.

The GOC will argue that eBay is responsible for preventing unsupervised sales of the contact lenses via its web site. GOC registrar Peter Coe said: 'They have the means to stop these items being listed. Members of the public are being put at risk because eBay are just not willing to act on this.'

The GOC said eBay was first made aware last November of the changes to the law which came into force on July 1, but the company's 'continued failure' to deal with the problem led to a summons being issued last month.

'We very much regret that it has been necessary to take legal action in this case,' added Coe. 'The GOC will always try to resolve such issues out of court wherever possible.'

eBay issued a statement saying that it intended to contest and plead not guilty to the charges. It added: 'Illegal items, including contact lenses are not permitted on the eBay.co.uk web site. If eBay is made aware of any listings offering contact lenses, these listings are promptly taken down.'

It added: 'eBay UK considers the GOC's claims that "eBay are just not willing to act", that eBay UK has wilfully failed to deal with the problem, and that eBay UK is indifferent to putting the public at risk to be libellous.

'We have instructed our lawyers to seek immediate withdrawal of these allegations by the GOC.'

eBay added that it was unaware of the GOC's concerns about the eBay.co.uk web site until it received the court summons at the beginning of September.

While Argos withdrew the sale of coloured contact lenses after being contacted by optician (News, September 8) eBay paid no heed to warnings regarding the Section 60 changes to the Opticians Act.

These included new regulations on the sale of plano contact lenses which must now be sold by, or under the supervision of, a registered optician or doctor.

Last month OPTICIAN contacted eBay outlining the regulatory changes but it responded saying it had 'no plans' to alter its policy, but that all its users have a 'responsibility to comply with the law, as stated in the user agreement.'

The case is scheduled to take place on Monday October 10 at the City of London Magistrates Court.

It will be the first such prosecution since the GOC successfully prosecuted Steffan Rygaard in 1998.