• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, June 9, 2011

The California company "Balls of Kryptonite," which operates ecommerce sites that sell cameras, video games and other electronics, has settled a Federal Trade Commission complaint by agreeing to permanently refrain from posing as a UK-based retailer.

The settlement agreement, made public on Thursday, also requires Balls of Kryptonite to hold off on charging purchasers' credit or debit cards until the company is ready to ship ordered merchandise.

The settlement grew out of an FTC complaint filed two years ago alleging that Balls of Kryptonite and its sole officer, Javian Karnani, pretended to operate out of the UK by creating Web sites with URLs like www.bestpricedbrands.co.uk and www.bitesizedeals. co.uk. The company also allegedly listed prices in pounds rather than dollars and said it would ship via the "Royal Mail."

The FTC said the reason Balls of Kryptonite posed as a UK company was in order to trick customers into believing that products they purchased were covered by that country's strong consumer protections -- including the right to cancel orders for full refunds within seven days of receiving merchandise.

Beyond allegedly duping consumers about its location, Balls of Kryptonite also "frequently" sends products to UK customers that differed from their orders, the FTC said. "In many instances, the electronic products have U.S.-compatible chargers that are incompatible with UK power systems," the complaint asserts. "In other instances, the user manuals and camera controls are entirely in Spanish or Chinese."

Karnani denied misleading consumers, but stipulated in court papers that his Web sites used "co.uk" names and stated prices in pounds. He also stipulated that the company sometimes failed to ship products as quickly as consumers anticipated.