codyg1985’s Think Tank

Two students from Daytona Beach Community College have filed a class-action lawsuit against Follett Higher Education Group and the college itself for $5 million for overcharging students on used textbooks and under compensating students when buying books back.

Needless to say, if this lawsuit goes through it will affect many colleges and the students therein nationwide (including here at UAH). A federal judge will decide whether this lawsuit should continue as a class-action next year.

From the article:

A Government Accountability Office report in 2005 found college-book prices have increased at twice the rate of inflation in the past two decades. A congressional advisory committee is undertaking a yearlong study to find ways to rein in prices.

Before the fall semester began in August, Rebman and Brandner say, their college bookstore illegally rounded up the prices of used books to the next 25-cent increment. Used books that should have cost $88.69 and $85.31 were sold to them for $88.75 and $85.50, respectively, they argue.

And when they sold books back to the store, they say the store paid them less than 50 percent of the new retail price as required by the contract. Examples cited in the suit include the return of a college-algebra book that cost $118.25 new but was bought back by the store for $56.25, or less than half its new price. In that transaction, the student should have received $59.12, the suit says.