The FCC Just Blocked New Foreign Robots From the US Market, and Not Only Chinese Ones

The Federal Communications Commission's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau released Public Notice DA 26-786 on 28 July, adding two categories to the Covered List maintained under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act. New models of humanoid and quadruped robots, and of connected power inverters, can no longer obtain the FCC equipment authorisation that a device generally needs before it may be imported, marketed or sold in the United States.

Read the text, not the headline

Almost every account described a ban on Chinese robots. The Public Notice says something broader and stranger: this equipment is identified by place of production, not by entity — that is, regardless of the nationality of the producer. Unlike the Huawei and Hikvision entries that preceded it, the new listing names no company and no country. A Japanese or German humanoid is covered on the same terms as a Chinese one, absent an exemption.

What is actually blocked

The measure bites on new device models only. Models already authorised may continue to be imported, marketed and sold; devices already purchased are untouched; purchase and use by the federal government is expressly unaffected. Producers can apply for Conditional Approval — from the Department of War for robots, from DoW or DHS for inverters. It took effect on release, with no phase-in.

The stated reason

The two underlying national security determinations were transmitted by an Executive Branch interagency body on 27 July; the FCC is obliged to implement them, and did so at bureau level rather than by a Commission vote. Their language is about remote control: inverter connectivity could let foreign firms "turn off the inverters or use them to collect and exfiltrate data," while advanced robots "collect data that could be leveraged by malign actors to surveil Americans... or to remotely commandeer the robots." Chairman Brendan Carr said the agency was acting "in lock step with our national security agencies."

Where the discretion sits

Because the listing is drawn by geography rather than by name, the exemption process is doing the real work. The FCC has previously exempted many non-Chinese suppliers from comparable restrictions on drones and routers, and is expected to again — which means the practical scope of this order will be decided case by case at conditional-approvals@fcc.gov, not in the Public Notice.