A complaint about a website advertisement for contact lenses wrongly claiming approval by optometrists has been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
L Frederikson of the New Zealand Association of Optometrists (NZAO) complained about claims made by Luxottica Retail NZ on its Contacts2Go website, saying they contained errors in fact and were misleading.
The home webpage was headed "Optometrist Approved" and the body of the ad said "Contacts2Go has been approved by optometrists ... We maintain frequent contact with the optometry industry and optometrists are happy to fax through your prescription details when required..."
The complainant said optometrists generally and the optometry industry did not support Contacts2Go, as the way in which it supplied contact lenses and contact lens solutions might pose a risk of harm to some patients.
As NZAO was the only professional association for optometrists, it would expect to be included in the "optometry industry" and therefore be the recipient of "frequent contact" by Contacts2Go, he said.
It had never been contacted by the company.
As registered health practitioners, optometrists were bound by the health information privacy code as well as the Privacy Act and not free to fax information held on patient records to third parties.
There had been a worldwide increase in cases of infection among contact lens wearers and the manner in which Contacts2Go operated did not meet safety standards, the complainant said.
The company was making the "Optometrist Approved" statement to gain undeserved professional credibility when it actually failed to meet clinical standards registered optometrists were held to, he said.
"There are at least 600 optometrists who disapprove of Contacts2Go."
The advertiser Luxottica Retail NZ replied that it acquired the rights to the website on February 24 this year from Contacts 2 Go Ltd and was not the original author of the words.
The representations were displayed on the website before the acquisition and Luxottica denied the words contained errors in fact or were misleading.
The company said it operated 40 optical retail stores under the trading names of OPSM and Budget Eyewear, employing about 60 registered optometrists, who approved the website. It also denied that the website operation failed to meet safety standards and that it contained or implied endorsement by the NZAO.
The ASA agreed NZAO was the only professional body of optometrists in New Zealand.
It said the claim "Optometrist Approved" essentially implied a professional acceptance nationwide, so was undeserved and inappropriate.
The ASA said there was a high standard of social responsibility expected in the advertising of therapeutic products and the ad failed to meet those standards, so breached the therapeutic products advertising code.
