Online vision retailer Warby Parker will pay Ky. civil penalty for letting 69 Kentuckians to take its online vision test, illegal in Ky.
Kentucky Health News
Warby Parker, an online retailer of prescription glasses, contact lenses and sunglasses, has agreed to pay at least $55,200 to the Commonwealth of Kentucky for allowing 69 Kentuckians to take its online vision test, contrary to state law, Attorney General Russell Coleman’s office said in a news release Friday.
Coleman’s office alleged that from July to October 2021, 69 Kentuckians were improperly given Warby Parker’s online test. “When the attorney general’s Office of Consumer Protection alerted Warby Parker of the problem, the company cooperated with the investigation and took the test offline,” the release said. “Following a voluntary settlement process, Warby Parker will be penalized $138,000. If there are no further violations for five years, the amount will be reduced to $55,200.”
The “Get a Prescription” page on Warby Parker’s website says the online vision test is available to people who “reside in an eligible state, due to state-level regulations,” and disqualifies residents of Alaska, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, New Mexico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Washington and West Virginia, using their two-letter postal abbreviations.
Kentucky consumers may complain about a business operating in the state to Coleman’s office at https://www.ag.ky.gov/Resources/Consumer-Resources/Consumers/Pages/Consumer-Complaints.aspx.
Kentucky Health News is an independent news service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.
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