Us, Easier to Buy Contact Lens Online

As for contact lenses, Congress this year is expected to make it easier to buy them online by requiring ophthalmologists and optometrists to give patients a copy of their contact prescriptions, which in turn would allow them to buy online. At least 15 states have laws that make it difficult or impossible to obtain contact prescriptions and buy online. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, is seen as having a good chance to pass.

Caskets, wine and Auto too are at the forefront of a growing conflict between e-commerce and state authority -- a conflict that is being fought in the courts, Congress and federal regulatory agencies. As the Internet makes it easier to transact business across state lines, laws that regulate the sale of goods and services are increasingly coming under attack for erecting barriers to online interstate commerce. At issue: whether states are protecting consumers or merely protecting the economic interests of bricks-and-mortar companies within their borders.