TP-Link Router
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A China-made TP-Link router used by Amazon, hundreds of ISPs and 65% of the U.S. market is under investigation that could result in a government ban.
Unspecified sources say that the Biden Commerce Department has already subpoenaed TP-Link. Between the three departments, it is entirely possible that TP-Link will be banned at some point in 2025, which would obviously put it under the Trump administration.
If the ban goes ahead, it would be remarkably similar to the Trump administration’s ban on Huawei technology in 2019. It’s also close to the Biden administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) declaring Kaspersky Lab’s antivirus software a national security threat in 2022.
Now, the Commerce Department, Defense Department, and Justice Department have launched investigations into the Chinese company TP-Link, according to the Wall Street Journal.
TP-Link has risen to prominence in the U.S. during the pandemic, growing from 20% of the market share to 65% in December 2024. More than 300 ISPs offer TP-Link as their default router.
In addition to internal users, TP-Link is now reportedly widely used by NASA, the Department of Defense, and the DEA. However, the Biden administration is considering a complete purge of all installed TP-Link routers in federal service.
Security is a central concern in the investigation. While TP-Link routers are not specifically linked to the Salt Typhoon attacks, the three departments are concerned that such actions exposed vulnerabilities that TP-Link is allegedly slow to fix.
The Justice Department is also concerned about the pricing of the routers. It is suspected that TP-Link routers are artificially priced to target American firms.
It is also believed that these routers could have been used to conduct cyberattacks on organizations including the Department of Defense.
Consequently, the Justice Department is also looking into whether the company is violating federal law prohibiting price gouging to create a monopoly. TP-Link denies this claim and says it will cooperate with the investigation.
“We welcome any opportunity to engage with the US government to demonstrate that our security practices are fully compliant with industry security standards,” a TP-Link spokesperson said, “and to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the US market, US consumers, and addressing US national security risks.”
If a ban is implemented, it would be implemented in a similar manner to the Huawei ban, which actively removed the technology from government installations. However, given the prevalence of TP-Link routers in homes, it is impossible to replace every home installation of every model.
However, this means that a ban on national security grounds would almost certainly escalate security concerns. Even if TP-Link is allowed to continue operating in the US, it is unlikely to continue to provide software updates for existing routers.
Such a ban would benefit American firms like Netgear, although it would contribute to ongoing trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
Separately, Congress recently wrote to the Department of Density about China's dominance in the display market.
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