Legislation

The optical industry is not exempt from legislation. For many years now, competition has been fierce. Various laws have been introduced to regulate this specialty. Recently, a new law has turned the profession upside down. Your online optician Mymonture invites you to discover the different laws in force in this section..

The Hamon law

Introduced by Benoît Hamon, Minister for the Social and Solidarity Economy and Consumer Affairs, the law of the same name aims to "rebalance relations between consumers and businesses".

Published in March 2014, this piece of legislation plans to lower prices in various sectors in order to offer consumers more purchasing power. The optical sector, for example, is no exception to this reform. Indeed, French optical prices are said to be the highest in Europe. With this reform, the Minister for Consumer Affairs intends to reduce opticians' gross margins, thereby encouraging online sales of eyewear.

Here's an overview of the bill's various areas of application:

• - The possession of a diploma is no longer required to own and manage a point of sale for lenses or corrective lenses (optician's store, branches, optician's department). However, a qualified optician must be present in the outlet.
• - Corrective lenses and contact lenses may only be dispensed by qualified opticians authorized to practice the profession.
• - Corrective lenses and contact lenses can only be dispensed if the patient has a valid prescription. Online opticians will need to pay particular attention to this date, in order to maximize patient safety.
• - The measurement of pupillary distance - representing the distance between the center of the two pupils - must now be annotated on the prescription issued by theophthalmologist. In this way, without having to ask a third party, eyeglass wearers will be able to order freely over the Internet, knowing the value of their pupillary distance. This obligation will only come into force on August 19, 2014.
• - Lens care products can now be sold by online opticians, supermarkets and other sales channels. Indeed, opticians and pharmacists have lost their monopoly on these medical devices.
• - Online retailers must be able to provide advice to Internet users through a qualified optician-lens fitter. The latter will be able to provide information on lens quality, frame characteristics and suitable treatments for different corrections.