Peter Schorsch
If you hear “facts” from 1-800 Contacts Inc., the Internet mass retailer of contact lenses, be very careful when it comes to their validity.
One of our reports yesterday contained a serious inaccuracy because we accepted as fact information provided to us via the Utah company’s lobbying and PR machine. We asked questions, listened and took notes. We then reported, incorrectly, that the nation’s top antitrust official had taken a position supporting 1-800 Contacts’ and its quest to uncouple the purchase of contact lenses, which are a medical device that when used improperly results in about a million ER and urgent care visits each year, from supervision by a doctor.
Except, that he didn’t. The statement attributed to U.S. Assistant Attorney General Bob Baer was actually made on behalf of 1-800 Contacts by a think tank that seems to be thinking a lot about contact lenses and why they should be even more available online.
This morning, we learned that we were among those in Tallahassee who were misled. Our story was posted all day and no one who gave me the information called me to clarify or spin or dodge or apologize or anything.
Here is the paragraph in question, excerpted from Law360.com:
Still, AAI said bringing a case against the contact lens manufacturers would provide a good vehicle for fleshing out the parameters of retail price maintenance-related litigation following the Leegin decision. During his confirmation hearing, Bill Baer, the current head of the DOJ’s antitrust division, said retail price maintenance presents “serious risk of antitrust harm to consumers from vertical price-fixing,” the letter said.
I think, upon reading that paragraph, that it’s unclear whether it was Baer who made that statement or the letter writers.
This leaves me skeptical of anything coming out of 1-800 Contacts’ camp.
