Dive Brief:
- The Federal Trade Commission is suing 1-800 Contacts over alleged antitrust violations in its search advertising practices, according to Reuters.
- The FTC is charging the online contact lens company with colluding with 14 competitors in order to prevent consumers from easily comparing prices.
- The agreements with 14 other online contact retailers included not advertising to people who searched for 1-800 Contacts, while 1-800 Contacts agreed to reciprocate and not advertise to people who searched for their competitors.
Dive Insight:
The FTC is coming after 1-800 Contacts over what it alleges are deceptive search advertising practices.
"1-800 Contacts has aggressively policed the bidding agreements, complaining to competitors when the company has suspected a violation, threatening further litigation, and demanding compliance," the FTC complaint states.
For its part, 1-800 Contacts’ general counsel, Cindy Williams, released a statement saying that the company will “vigorously defend” its actions and that it believes in a competitive contact lens marketplace.
The irony in the FTC complaint, Reuters reports, is that 1-800 Contacts previously asked the FTC to enforce rules that require optometrists to provide people with contact lens prescriptions to allow them to compare prices with online contact lens providers like 1-800 Contacts. Now, the FTC has turned its lens to 1-800 Contacts itself
The FTC first released guidelines on deceptive search activities in 2002 and later updated them in 2013.