DJI loses lawsuit over classification as Chinese army firm

A federal judge has rejected drone maker DJI’s efforts to get off a Department of Defense list of Chinese military companies.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman ruled Friday that the DoD had provided “substantial evidence” that DJI contributes “to the Chinese defense industrial base.”

Pointing to the use of modified DJI drones in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Friedman wrote, “Whether or not DJI’s policies prohibit military use is irrelevant. That does not change the fact that DJI’s technology has both substantial theoretical and actual military application.”

At the same time, Judge Friedman rejected some of the DoD’s other rationales for the listing.

Other government agencies, including the Department of Commerce and the Treasury Department, placed DJI on similar lists before it was added to the DoD list in 2022.

When DJI filed the lawsuit last year, the company said it was “not owned or controlled by the Chinese military” and that “the DoD itself acknowledges that DJI makes consumer and commercial drones, not military drones.”

The lawsuit also said the company had “suffered ongoing financial and reputational harm, including lost business” as a result of the listing.

TechCrunch has reached out to DJI for comment. The company told Reuters that it’s considering its legal options and said Judge Friedman’s decision was “based on a single rationale that applies to many companies that have never been listed.”
DJI faces other legal hurdles in the United States, including a potential ban on sales starting in December unless a national security agency determines that its drones do not “pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States.”