The announcement follows undercover police investigations.
The attorney general of Texas has halted the sale of contact lenses that he said were “unsafe.”
Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that his office had obtained settlements with 21 convenience and dollar stores in the San Antonio area.
The store owners agreed to pay a combined total of about $50,000 in civil penalties and attorney fees and to permanently stop selling contact lenses.
Retailers also agreed to provide full refunds to consumers “for a period of 90 days from the entry of the Assurances of Voluntary Compliance,” according to a press release.
The stores violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Texas Optometry Act by selling contact lenses without requiring a prescription upon purchase, Paxton said.
Undercover investigations by the San Antonio Police Department found evidence that store clerks sold cosmetic lenses “acquired from novelty businesses,” according to the release.
Texas law does not exempt cosmetic lenses from the prescription requirement, the release noted.
Read the announcement from the Texas Office of the Attorney General