The eyeglass and contact lens rules your website has to follow, and the page they deserve

Two federal rules decide what an optometry practice may say about prescriptions and purchases, three states add their own advertising rules on top, and a website that gets a sentence wrong is a website a board or the FTC can read. This guide quotes the rules, lists the sentences that break them, and ends with the one page most practices have not written: a plain explanation of how a patient gets their prescription.

The Eyeglass Rule after September 24, 2024

The FTC's Ophthalmic Practice Rules, 16 CFR Part 456, were amended on July 26, 2024 and took effect on September 24, 2024. The core duty is unchanged and worth quoting: a prescriber must not "fail to provide to the patient one copy of the patient's prescription immediately after the refractive eye examination is completed" (456.2(a)(1)). The rule now says "refractive eye examination", and the FTC's announcement says prescribers must tell consumers that an eye health exam is different, that the prescription goes to the patient before any offer to sell glasses, and that proof of insurance counts as payment. A prescriber may withhold the copy until the exam is paid for, but only if immediate payment is required of everyone (456.2(a)(2)).

What is new is 456.4. After giving a paper prescription, the prescriber must "request that the patient acknowledge receipt of the prescription by signing a separate statement", may use the wording "My eye care professional provided me with a copy of my prescription at the completion of my examination", must note and sign a refusal, and must keep the record for not less than three years for FTC inspection. The requirement applies only to prescribers with a financial interest in eyewear sales, which is every practice with an optical. A digital copy is allowed instead of paper only with the patient's verifiable affirmative consent, and that consent is also kept three years (456.3).

Two more parts of 456.2 shape marketing directly. It is unfair to condition a refractive exam on agreeing "to purchase any ophthalmic goods from the ophthalmologist or optometrist" (456.2(b)), and to charge any fee beyond the exam fee for releasing the prescription (456.2(c)). The FTC's 2024 notice estimated the rule's paperwork at 3,208,333 burden hours a year across about 43,000 optometrists and 18,000 ophthalmologists.

The Contact Lens Rule and the eight-hour clock

The Contact Lens Rule, 16 CFR Part 315, has the same shape with one sharper edge. After a contact lens fitting the prescriber, "whether or not requested by the patient, shall provide to the patient a copy of the contact lens prescription", may not "require the purchase of contact lenses from the prescriber or from another person as a condition of providing a copy", and since the 2020 amendments must get a signed acknowledgment of release or keep other evidence for three years (315.3(c)), again exempt if the practice has no financial interest in lens sales.

The sharper edge is 315.5. A seller "may sell contact lenses only in accordance with a contact lens prescription for the patient" that is either presented to the seller or verified by direct communication with the prescriber, and a prescription counts as verified if "the prescriber fails to communicate with the seller within eight (8) business hours after receiving" the request. If your practice does not answer verification requests inside eight business hours, the sale goes through on silence, including a sale on an expired prescription you would have declined. Under 315.6 a contact lens prescription lasts "not less than one year after the issue date" unless state law sets longer. For an independent practice, the operational answer is a named person and a same-day routine for verification requests, which is a front-desk matter, and a sentence on the website that says you honor the rule, which is a marketing matter.

What Texas, Florida and California add

Texas. Occupations Code 351.403 prohibits "a false, deceptive, or misleading statement or advertisement concerning ophthalmic services or materials". It requires any ad for prescription eyeglasses or contact lenses to state that an eye doctor's prescription is required, and any price ad to state whether an exam, prescription services and follow-up care are included, to disclose any time, quantity or per-customer limit, and for contact lenses to state the number of lenses. Required statements must be readily readable by a person of average comprehension. Section 351.155 goes the other way and protects the practice: the Texas Optometry Board may not restrict advertising except to prohibit false or misleading practices, and may not restrict the medium, the size, the duration, trade names, or truthful statements about address, hours, languages, insurance plans accepted, installment payments or affiliations. The Board's rules add two things: 22 TAC 279.9 says "board certified" or similar wording may be used only if the ad names the certifying organization (the Board "does not confer certifications or specializations"), and any contact lens price "shall affirmatively disclose the number of lenses included"; 22 TAC 279.10 requires the doctor's name to be visible to the public before entry into the reception area, and a doctor with no ownership interest to display their name regardless of the share of time spent at the office. The Board's 2024 newsletter adds that licensees must disclose their license type in all communications, including signage, letterhead and business cards, and that a practice may not be used by a mercantile establishment in advertising or signage.

Florida. Statute 456.062 requires any ad for a free, discounted or reduced-fee service by a practitioner licensed under the health chapters (optometry is chapter 463) to carry a capital-letter statement that the patient and any other person responsible for payment "has a right to refuse to pay, cancel payment, or be reimbursed" for other services performed as a result of and within 72 hours of responding to the ad. The Board of Optometry's rule 64B13-3.009 says the licensee "has the duty to review and proof all advertisements prior to publication", that "all advertisements must clearly denote with words or proper abbreviation" that the practitioner practices optometry, and that the 456.062 statement must be in "no less than Times New Roman 6 point font size". Statute 463.014 lets a practice use a trade name only if consumer communications contain "the name under which the practitioner is licensed", and says a practice name may not serve "as an affirmation of the quality or competitive value" of the services ("Best Eyes of Florida" is out).

California. Business and Professions Code 3102 says "it is unlawful to advertise as being free or without cost the furnishing of optometric services" where the services depend on a purchase, unless the condition is "fully disclosed in the same advertisement". Section 651, which covers every healing arts licensee, requires price ads to be exact (no "as low as", no "lowest prices"), bars misleading the public through "bait, discount, premiums, gifts", requires each product or service's price to be clearly identifiable, and says an advertised product price must include related professional services such as dispensing and fitting unless the ad says otherwise; images of models must be labeled; a violation is a misdemeanor and grounds for discipline.

Other states have their own versions, and the online vision test is a live example of state lines mattering: in May 2024 Kentucky's attorney general settled with an online eyewear seller for $138,000 over its online vision test under the state's Consumer Protection in Eye Care Act, and the seller's own site listed eleven states where the test was unavailable "due to state-level regulations". If your website mentions online renewals at all, it should say that your state's rules apply.

"Free" and price offers

The FTC's guides on the use of the word "free" (16 CFR Part 251) say the conditions on a free offer "should be set forth clearly and conspicuously at the outset of the offer". Truth in Advertising's August 2025 review of a national chain's "eye exam plus two pairs of glasses for $89.95" offer shows the gap between an ad and its fine print: frames tagged $79.95, single-vision uncoated plastic lenses, in-store only. An independent practice has three choices: run no offer (our advice, since a practice that holds the map pack does not need one), run an offer with every condition in the headline, or run a price with the inclusions spelled out the way Texas 351.403 requires anyway. The Texas Optometry Board's 2024 newsletter says free exam ads are allowed but "cannot be false, deceptive, or misleading" and may need to explain exam limits, extra testing costs and what happens if glasses are not needed, and that free eyeglasses or contact lenses may not be advertised or given away at all.

Sentences your website may and may not publish

Two more that are not rules but read as if they were: a practice should never write that a patient "must" or "has to" buy from it to get anything, and should never describe an online seller's lenses as unsafe, which is a claim that needs evidence under the FTC's advertising guidance.

The prescription page worth writing

Write a page that explains, in plain words, how a patient gets their prescription and what they can do with it. The two chain exam pages we read have no such page. The independent should write it precisely because it reminds the patient they are free to leave: it reads as the opposite of a hard sell, and it answers a question patients have before they book. The page says: you get a copy of your glasses prescription at the end of the refractive exam and we will ask you to sign a note saying so, because federal rules require it; you get your contact lens prescription when the fitting is complete; both are yours to fill anywhere; a glasses prescription in this state is valid for [X] and a contact lens prescription for at least one year; what we charge for the exam and what it includes; and what we offer in the optical and why patients choose it. Four hundred words, approved by one of your doctors, titled "Your prescription is yours". It will not rank for "eye doctor", and it will be read by the patient who was about to buy online and decided to walk in instead; the Vision Council found 52 percent of former online buyers made their most recent eyewear purchase in person.

What to do in the next hour

1. Search your own website for "request", "purchase", "free" and "board certified". Read every sentence they appear in against the list above.
2. Confirm the front desk has the 456.4 signature statement on paper or on the tablet, and that the file is kept three years.
3. Name the person who answers contact lens verification requests, and the deadline (same business day).
4. Draft the prescription page and send it to the doctor who likes editing.

General marketing information for practice owners, not legal advice. Rules are quoted as checked in October 2026; confirm with your board or counsel before publishing a price or an offer.