"College students are smart enough to look at a price at a campus bookstore and a Web site," said Kuhn.

Not everyone agrees with that line of reasoning. Marc L. Fleischaker, the lawyer for NACS, said the suit isn't about consumers' intelligence or their abilities to shop comparatively, but about misleading the public.

"Of course students are smart, as are any consumers, but that doesn't make false advertising permissible. Under that theory, you could say it's 1000 percent off," Fleischaker said.

The suit also claims that the "Suggested Price" on VarsityBooks.com's Web site is misleading because no such "Suggested Price" exists in the textbook publishing industry.

Allan E. Powell, the Harvard Coop's corporate general manager, said while other publishing industries offer a suggested price, "most textbooks don't come with a suggested retail."

While students have a variety of on-line book vendors to choose from, NACS sued VarsityBooks.com because it was the "most prominent false advertiser," according to Fleischaker.

NACS is also currently looking into VarsityBooks.com rival BIGWORDS.com, which advertises as offering up to 50 percent off.