As it continues trying to dig itself out of a ban on the sale of its routers in the U.S., TP-Link’s legal woes just keep getting worse. This week, four states—Iowa, Florida, Montana, and Nebraska—all filed similar lawsuits against the router-maker, alleging it’s misleading customers about how entangled its business is with China.
The lawsuits essentially state that TP-Link isn’t being entirely truthful about how safe its routers are for consumer use, engaging in deceptive trade acts that go against the states’ consumer protection laws, as reported by Ars Technica. Back in March, the FCC banned the sale of pretty much all routers produced outside of the U.S. Asus, Adtran, Netgear, Amazon, Calix, Nokia, and Starlink have all received exemptions from this ban.
The crux of the problem is this: TP-Link says it’s moved all of its operations out of China, but regulators seem to think this isn’t exactly true. TP-Link moved its U.S. operations to California back in 2024, and it claims all components of its U.S.-sold routers are now manufactured in Vietnam. The company has also repeatedly stated it never shares customer data with foreign governments.
Evidence to the contrary comes mostly from a Bloomberg report that said that “aside from components bought in Vietnam that account for 0.5 percent of the total value of inputs to the plant there, all other components are imported from China.” The new lawsuits also point out that the U.S. government has, in the past, stated that Russian intelligence exploited TP-Link vulnerabilities, and Nebraska’s suit specifically mentions TP-Link’s alleged ongoing ties to a Chinese military contractor.
“The coordinated lawsuits are built on false premises,” TP-Link’s corporate affairs officer, Steve Kovsky, said in response to the new lawsuits. He further claimed regulators have been provided with plenty of “clear, verifiable documentation demonstrating two fundamental facts: TP-Link Systems devices sold in the U.S. are manufactured in Vietnam and TP-Link Systems is an independent, U.S. company that is not owned or controlled by any foreign government.”
TP-Link routers produced before the ban are still allowed to be sold in the U.S. You would think that, if TP-Link’s routers really were a threat to U.S. citizens, we’d ban all of them completely—but hey, what do I know.
TP-Link met with the FCC back in April to seek an exemption from the wide-sweeping router ban and had no luck in doing so. The company told Ars Technica this week that for “new products, we’re going through the FCC’s standard approval process like other router makers.”
