Charging false and misleading advertising, the National Association of College Stores is suing VarsityBooks. com., the largest of the new online textbook retailers that are taking away some sales from traditional college stores.
The suit, filed October 29 in district court in Washington, D.C., charges that VarsityBooks.com ads touting the sales of textbooks at 40% discount "falsely imply that NACS member stores overcharged students for textbooks." NACS emphasized that most textbooks do not come with a suggested retail price and thus VarsityBooks' discount claims are false.
The suit asks that VarsityBooks.com be prevented from "using any advertising, promotional material or packaging stating that VarsityBooks offers discounts or percentages off textbooks unless Varsity identifies, clearly and prominently, the true bases for the claimed discount, including identifying the source of the comparative price Varsity uses to determine such discounts and the true percentage of its textbooks offered at such discounted levels."
In a statement, NACS chief staff officer Brian Cartier said that the association is "not opposed to online booksellers.... We welcome fair competition because we believe it benefits consumers. We simply cannot stand idly by, however, when huge sums of money are being spent on deceptive advertising and promotional campaigns directed at college students."
Speaking for VarsityBooks.com, Jon Kaplan, v-p of communications and strategic planning, told PW, "The lawsuit that NACS filed against VarsityBooks.com for false and misleading claims is completely without merit. VarsityBooks.com offers college students a choice when they buy their textbooks and that choice means more convenience, better prices and real value. We're disappointed that NACS would bring this baseless action to try to stop VarsityBooks.com."
Asked about the possibility of suits against other online textbook sellers, NACS senior associate executive director Cynthia D'Angelo replied that this is "only a suit against VarsityBooks." She added, however, that NACS "certainly is investigating advertising claims made by other national online-only sellers."
