A pending legal battle has ignited a debate pitting past and future business practices against each other.
The National Association of College Stores, Inc. filed a lawsuit Monday accusing online bookseller Varsitybooks.com of false advertising.
NACS is a trade association with 3,000 members, including the University Bookstore.
According to a letter sent to all NACS members, the lawsuit alleges that discounted prices shown on the Varsitybooks.com Web site are inaccurate and misleading to consumers. The lawsuit also claims that Varsitybooks.com portrays on-campus store pricing in a negative light. According to the lawsuit, Varsitybooks.com bases their discounts on a "suggested price" given to them by a book distributor. These suggested prices supposedly are the prices offered by the stores within the NACS.
NACS claims that since there is no suggested retail price in the textbook industry, Varsitybooks.com cannot claim to base their discounts on this nonexistent pricing system.
"We don't mind having competition as long the claims are accurate. If they are representing something that is inaccurate it is unfair to students and consumers," NACS Associate Executive Director Larry Daniels said.
"The important thing is that we all need to play on a level playing field, which means communicating information correctly," University Bookstore Director Jon Kates said.
Through the lawsuit, NACS hopes to force Varsitybooks.com to accurately represent their product and print a retraction on their Web site about their previous pricing claims.
Varsitybooks.com, however, refutes the allegations of the NACS lawsuit.
"The lawsuit that NACS has filed is completely without merit," Varsitybooks.com Vice President Jon Kaplan said.
Kaplan said Varsitybooks.com will continue with its business of providing affordability and convenience to college students, despite the lawsuit.
"It is disappointing that NACS would bring action when Varsitybooks.com is bringing efficiencies of the Internet to the market to help college students," he said.
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