Online giant offers CLs without Rx validation

Coastal Contacts, the world's biggest online retailer of contact lenses, is selling contact lenses in the UK through a subsidiary website that requires no prescription verification.

Customers in London have been targeted through an extensive advertising campaign for the Lensway.co.uk site. Optician was prompted to use the site by a reader and conducted a purchase that required no proof of prescription, dates, lens specification or name of practitioner for verification.

The concerned reader said he was aware that some small internet retailers sold lenses in a manner that breached GOC guidelines but was concerned that the rules were being flouted by a firm backed by a global giant.