The National Association of College Stores, an organization representing more than 3,000 college stores including the Iowa State University Bookstore, has filed a lawsuit against VarsityBooks.com.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Oct. 29, alleges that the online textbook retailer made “false and misleading advertising claims regarding large discounts on textbooks it sells on its Web site,” according to a press release from NACS.

The suit accuses VarsityBooks.com of claiming to offer college textbooks at a 40 percent discount, when actually it only sells a small fraction of its books at a price 40 percent less than what it calls the “suggested price.”

The NACS press release also claims that the online bookseller “falsely implied that NACS member stores overcharged students for textbooks.”

The lawsuit does not seek monetary damages, but it does ask the court to prevent VarsityBooks.com from promoting its discounts unless they clearly identify the basis for them.

Lynette Seymour, general manager of UBS, said she wants students to know “the truth.”

“We are most concerned with students being accurately informed and being able to make an informed decision,” she said.

Cynthia D’Angelo, senior associate executive director at NACS, said VarsityBooks.com’s discounts are based on false claims that drive students away from buying books from university bookstores.

“Students will go into a bookstore and see that a textbook costs $50 or $60 and think they are being ripped off,” she said, “but in reality, textbooks are an expensive commodity.”

D’Angelo said since VarsityBooks.com’s advertising is misleading, the students can be “duped into thinking they are buying the book at a discount, when in many cases they aren’t.”

In a statement on the VarsityBooks.com Web site, President and CEO Eric Kuhn voiced his concern over the lawsuit, saying it was “completely without merit.”

“It’s disappointing that NACS would bring this action to compete in the courtroom rather than competing against us in the marketplace,” he said.

D’Angelo said while NACS is opposed to the false claims, the organization isn’t opposed to competition or online booksellers.

“In fact, we encourage our members to sell online,” she said.

Seymour said UBS sells books through its own Web site and is working to sell more items online.

NACS’ members serve about 13 million students and 500,000 faculty.

VarsityBooks.com is one of the largest online-only textbook sellers. It claims to have book lists covering 210,000 courses at more than 300 colleges and universities.