Chinese language agency DJI, the world’s largest drone producer, has sued the US Federal Communications Fee for including it to a blacklist which restricts gross sales in the US, the corporate mentioned Wednesday (Feb 25).
DJI has confronted rising scrutiny from Washington lately, together with for its alleged position in surveilling ethnic minorities in China and its drones reportedly getting used extensively by each side within the warfare in Ukraine.
The corporate mentioned in an announcement despatched to AFP that it had filed a petition contesting the “addition of DJI’s communications and video surveillance gear to the Fee’s ‘Lined Record'”.
The Federal Communications Fee (FCC) mentioned in December it had updated its “Covered List” – communications gear and companies deemed to pose an unacceptable threat to US nationwide safety – to incorporate unmanned plane methods produced overseas.
DJI mentioned on Wednesday that the lawsuit, filed on the US Ninth Circuit, will problem FCC’s determination, which in response to the drone maker prohibits it from advertising and marketing, promoting and importing new merchandise into the US.
“The FCC can add merchandise to the Lined Record solely after they current a nationwide safety menace, but it has by no means recognized any menace related to DJI or its merchandise,” the corporate mentioned, including that the US had not given it the chance to refute any of its considerations.
The US Commerce Division mentioned early final yr it was contemplating new guidelines to deal with dangers posed by drones made with know-how from overseas adversaries equivalent to China and Russia.
Beijing’s overseas ministry responded in fury, accusing the US of “generalising the idea of nationwide safety”.
DJI sued the US Division of Protection in 2024, complaining that Washington had “erroneously” included the corporate on a Chinese language navy firm blacklist.
The Pentagon added DJI to its listing of Chinese language military-linked corporations in 2022.
