by Joel Harrison
30. December 2010 20:22
A ban on selling contact lenses over the Internet introduced in Hungary has been declared incompatible with the law of the European Union.
The regulation in question stated that contact lenses could only be sold by a shop employing an optometrist or an ophthalmologist. In addition, the shop had to have an area of at least 18 square metres.
However, the European Court of Justice decided that these provisions contain excessive restrictions (as they prevented companies from other countries from reaching their customers) and they should be abolished. The court also stated that banning online sale of contact lenses is not necessary to protect the public, since there other ways of achieving that.
The issue is highly controversial and numerous countries are trying to deal with it, especially in view of the fact that online shops often offer contact lenses that are not officially approved for marketing in a given country or state and are thus considered to constitute a danger to public health.
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