Contact Lens Wearers Will Get Settlement

Bausch and Lomb has agreed to pay contact lens wearers as much as $68 million in cash and products to settle claims it cheated them.

The Rochester, N.Y., manufacturer was accused in a 1994 class-action lawsuit of packaging one type of lens under four different names at widely varying prices, leading customers who paid more to think they were getting more.

As many as 1.5 million buyers of the company’s disposable lenses could receive payments ranging from a few dollars to as much as $100 each, depending on how many lenses they bought, a plaintiff’s lawyer said.

While admitting no wrongdoing, Bausch and Lomb agreed to pay customers as much as $34 million in cash and provide the same amount in free products including contact lenses, sunglasses and skin-care items.

Judge U.W. Clemon granted preliminary approval Wednesday.