WASHINGTON — Texas has sued TP-Link Systems for allegedly deceptively marketing its networking devices and allowing Beijing access to American consumers’ devices, the state’s attorney general said Tuesday.
“Despite their claims of privacy and security, TP-Link products have been used by state-sponsored hacking entities to launch multiple cyber attack operations against the United States,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a press release announcing the lawsuit.
“With nearly all parts of its products imported from China, TP-Link’s intentional deception of Texas citizens regarding the citizenship, privacy, and security capabilities of its networking devices is not only illegal — it is also a national security threat that enables the covert surveillance and exploitation of Texas consumers,” he added.
TP-Link Systems, a California-based router manufacturer that is a spin-off of a Chinese company, said it would “vigorously defend” its reputation, adding that the Chinese government has no form of ownership or control over the company, its products or user data.
It also said the claims made by Texas are “baseless and will be proven false,” noting that all of its core operations and infrastructure are located within the United States, with US user data stored on Amazon Web Services servers.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Paxton said the lawsuit follows an investigation that began in October and is one of a series of actions against companies allied with China. It also comes after Texas banned its employees from using TP-Link last month and after Reuters reported that the Trump administration had temporarily halted a proposed ban on TP-Link sales in the United States.
Paxton announced last April that he had launched an attempt to impeach US Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas known for his hard-line policies towards China.
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