DJI drones blacklisted by US Commerce Department?

DJI was blacklisted by the US government's commerce department. Potentially making purchasing DJI drones much more difficult in the future.

This morning Reuter's reported that DJI will be added to the United States economic Entity List by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) US Department of Commerce, effective today, December 18th, @ 11:15am EST.

So what does this actually mean? Has DJI been blacklisted? Time will tell, but technically here's what we know. Being added to the Entity List means the organizations on the list cannot have exports shipped to them from American companies unless those companies (exporters) secure an appropriate license to do so.  It also means they are not privy to US developed technology which may or may not effect them negatively. That depends on how much the company uses US based components and tech.

DJI was placed on the list, joining 76 other blacklisted companies, including Huawei and SMCI.  It was originally thought this would occur due to national security concerns, but in fact, the US Commerce department cited "human rights abuses" as the reason for DJI's inclusion.  Even with this being the case, based on our recent discussion with Kevin F, (notorious DJI hacker) there are still significant data issues. But we'll leave that for future articles and discussions.

According to the Commerce Departments website:

"The Entity List is a tool utilized by BIS to restrict the export, re-export, and transfer (in-country) of items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to persons (i.e., individuals, organizations, and companies) reasonably believed to be involved, or to pose a significant risk of becoming involved, in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.  Additional license requirements apply to exports, re-exports, and transfers (in-country) of items subject to the EAR to listed entities, and the availability of most license exceptions is limited."

Does This Mean We Won't Be Able to Buy DJI Drones

While the fact that DJI has been blacklisted creates a challenge for SZ DJI Technology Co., Ltd. (the DJI parent company), it does not mean you'll no longer be able to purchase DJI drones and products.

For example, Huawei is on the Entity list, and their phones are still available to American citizens, albeit its almost impossible to find the phones. Many top retailers, including the Microsoft Store and Walmart, stopped selling Huawei shortly after they were blacklisted.

DJI Blacklisted & No Drones to Fill the Void

Now that the United States has added DJI to the Entity List, in time it COULD become more difficult to purchase DJI drones. Especially true if you are from a federal agency, law enforcement agency or other publicly funded organization. Unfortunately, we don't know of a single drone manufacturer that comes close to any DJI offering for the price point.  Many argue that companies like Autel and Skydio will compete to fill any void that is left by DJI being added to the Entity List.

Yet, Skydio's drones do not allow the pilot to be fully in-charge of their flight, thus potentially violating the FAA's part 107.  Autel makes capable drones, but does not provide a "sensor-denied" flight mode. So if you ever want to stop a flyaway or emergency, it will be next to impossible to do so.

Is there a current drone offering that can compete with the commercial powerhouse of a Phantom? No. Not even close. FreeFly is the closest we've found to offering a drone that can do what a DJI Phantom does. Work such as mapping, film work and action sports work.  But as of now, the price difference is substantial. The Phantom costs users about $1,500 whereas the Freefly Astro is about $15,000.00 or 10x.

What do you think? Is this a significant headwind for DJI? Or simply a small speedbump?