The new ban imposed by the US for apparent security reasons, which will soon hit routers and drones produced abroad and, in particular, of Chinese manufacture, risks becoming a ridiculous dance. Already at the end of 2024, the Wall Street Journal had written that the real target of possible protectionist rules was TP-Link (at the time the best-selling brand on Amazon, holding 65 percent of the market, with US industries forced to share the crumbs).
The US Federal Communications Commission, with regard to network devices, after realizing that there are no American companies with a fully rooted supply chain in the US, had to intervene by introducing ad hoc exemptions for two manufacturers, first saving Netgear products and then Amazon. Now there is a new rush to amend the regulation to loosen its restrictions.
THE FCC ONCE AGAIN LOOSENS THE SCOPE OF ITS BANS
In fact, the Federal Communications Commission, contrary to what was initially planned, has decided to allow the distribution of software and firmware updates to finished products on the hi-tech blacklist. As with the exemptions that allow the distribution of routers made abroad, this new concession also has a deadline: January 1, 2029, after which either the factory distributing them will have established the supply chain on American soil or it will be forced to also stop user support through patches that fix errors and improve the user experience.
A BOOMERANG PROVISION
While the first exemption aimed to avoid closing the market to new devices, this second intervention could have a dual purpose. First of all, as is evident, to prevent the lack of patches from making life easier for hackers, facilitating the very phenomenon that was intended to be fought.
IS THE FCC AFRAID OF CLASS ACTIONS?
The second reason could also lie in the fear of class actions: forcing companies to abruptly stop support to their users that could have otherwise continued could lead to a proliferation of lawsuits by consumers who, after purchasing a device, can no longer benefit from updates to increase its longevity, effectively pushing them to abandon it prematurely.
