If the profession is to stand any chance of fighting back against the unequal supply of products finding their way onto, and into patients' eyes, it will need to think long and hard about its approach.
There couldn't have been more depressing news this week than to hear that the General Optical Council had dropped its action against eBay. The profession wasn't even given the satisfaction of hearing its advocates get their day in court.
Given the solidity of the GOC's case it is probably just as well. The lead in to the hearing has taken weeks, so it beggars belief that the GOC's silk didn't understand the ramifications of the relevant law until hours before the court was ready to sit.
It was always going to be a tall order for the GOC to go after eBay given the website's track record. In the past eBay has won high-profile cases proving its position as a facilitator of a sale rather than an active part of the transaction.
If it can beat off objections about the sale of Nazi memorabilia, and onslaughts by Which?, national TV and trading standards, what success was the GOC ever likely to get?
The profession has to target its prey a little more carefully, pick off a few of the small guys before thinking it can go big game hunting.
With the law you get as good as you can afford and I would guess eBay has pretty deep pockets. It is perhaps too much to hope that the GOC had employed the services of a 'no win, no fee' brief.
There are plenty of people across the profession, industry and business that all want the same result. A council of war to develop a strategy to fight unregulated supply is well overdue.