FTC Says Fees Were Hidden In The Last Line On The Eye Chart

The FTC, joined by Nevada and Utah, has filed a complaint against Lens.com, alleging that the online contact lens retailer used deceptively low prices to attract shoppers and then added substantial mandatory charges later in the checkout process. 

According to the complaint, Lens.com prominently advertised contact lenses at eye-catching prices in ads and on its website, while claiming that customers would encounter “No Hidden Fees.” The complaint alleges, however, that consumers couldn’t purchase lenses for the advertised prices because the company added a mandatory “Taxes & fees” charge that substantially increased the total cost. In some cases, the additional charge more than doubled the advertised price. 

The complaint focuses heavily on where and how those charges were disclosed. According to the complaint, shoppers moved through multiple checkout screens that highlighted “Continue” and “Go to Checkout” buttons, while the “Taxes & fees” line item appeared only below the fold on an intermediate screen that many consumers would never see unless they scrolled down. The regulators allege that consumers could proceed all the way to the payment screen without ever seeing a separate disclosure of those charges. 

The complaint alleges that the phrase “Taxes & fees” would lead reasonable consumers to believe the charge included sales taxes. According to the complaint, however, customer-service representatives allegedly told consumers that the charge was not a sales tax and instead consisted of “tax recovery charges” and compensation for servicing or processing orders. The regulators allege that the charges were imposed even on purchases shipped to states with no sales tax or states that exempt contact lenses from sales tax. 

The complaint also targets Lens.com’s AutoRefill program, which automatically ships replacement lenses at recurring intervals. The company allegedly failed to clearly disclose, before obtaining billing information, material subscription terms (including the fees), how consumers could cancel, and deadlines to avoid future charges. As a result, the complaint claims the company violated the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (“ROSCA”) and state laws by failing to clearly disclose material terms and failing to obtain consumers’ express informed consent to recurring charges. 

Notably, the complaint alleges that Lens.com received thousands of consumer complaints about these practices over several years and was aware of concerns about hidden fees as early as 2022, yet failed to make meaningful changes to its checkout flow.

This case is another reminder that regulators are focusing closely on how companies advertise prices and fees. If your checkout flow has fees relegated to the “last line on the eye chart,” now is the time to bring them into focus. We’ll keep an eye on this case and let you know how it develops.