The National Association of College Stores and Amazon have resolved their differences over the latter’s online text advertising claims. Amazon filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Seattle in response to a complaint that NACS lodged with the Better Business Bureau’s National Advertising Division over Amazon’s spring 2011 semester textbook price comparisons. In its ads, Amazon claimed that students save “up to 60%” on new textbooks, “up to 90%” on used, and could get “up to 60%” on buy-back. Amazon sought a judgment under the federal Lanham Act that its claims were neither false nor misleading.

“Amazon may change its advertising in 2012 and later years, and it would not serve the college store industry well if we were to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars litigating about advertisements that may no longer be used in the future,” said NACS president Danny Key, and director of bookstore services at Wingate University in Wingate, N.C.

No money was involved in the settlement, but Amazon and NACS did agree not to challenge each other about similar claims for at least a year. Initially, NACS sought to have the case dismissed, but the court denied its motion. As part of the settlement process, Amazon provided NACS’s attorney with the methodology by which it substantiated its savings claims. While not endorsing the substantiation methodology or the results, NACS agreed that it was sufficient to determine that there is no current dispute about the advertising.