ROBNEWS
The proposed rule targets affiliates and rebranded distributors regulators say are routing restricted foreign drone hardware into US stores. It is a proposal, not a ban.
The Federal Communications Commission is trying to rewrite the rule on restricted foreign drones rather than keep chasing individual importers one fine at a time.
The agency released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking public comment on whether to prohibit the continued importation and marketing of previously authorized equipment from nine companies: Cogito Tech, Fikaxo Technology, Lyno Dynamics, Skyhigh Tech, Spatial Hover, SZ Knowact Robot Technology, WaveGo Tech, Xtra Technology, and agricultural drone maker XAG. The FCC alleges all nine act as intermediaries for entities on its Covered List, the catalogue of foreign suppliers deemed an unacceptable risk to US national security, with DJI as the implicit anchor of the drone category.
The proposal, reported by DroneDJ, lands three weeks after the FCC proposed $25,000 fines against eight of the same companies for ignoring formal Letters of Inquiry into their marketing of radio equipment tied to Covered List entities. That sequence is the story. For most of this year, the agency's enforcement has been name-by-name: in late July, the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology issued an Order to Show Cause against Odyssey Robot LLC, the parent of the SkyRover consumer-drone brand, alleging it operates as a DJI "front company." The Drone Girl reported the FCC subsequently revoked Odyssey's equipment authorizations.
The new NPRM asks whether the same prohibition should apply by category, not by name. If the rule finalizes, previously authorized equipment from any company the FCC determines to be acting as an affiliate, subsidiary, or rebranded distributor for a Covered List entity could be blocked from import and US sale. That is the structural lever. The per-company forfeitures are the teeth; the rulemaking is the jaw.
The practical effect, if the rule goes through, would show up first on Amazon. Consumer listings under names like SkyRover and Specta, the brands PetaPixel identified as DJI-adjacent rebrands, depend on existing FCC equipment authorizations. Without those authorizations, the listings cannot legally be sold in the US. The proposed rule does not touch DJI itself, which is already subject to separate restrictions, and the agency has been careful to frame the proceeding as closing an alleged work-around, not as a new ban on the Chinese drone giant.
PCMag reached out to DJI and to Xtra Technology for comment; neither responded. Amazon was not contacted in the reporting and has issued no statement. None of the nine named companies has publicly confirmed a Covered List affiliation, and the "shell company" framing in the FCC's filings remains an allegation that the NPRM will now test in the public-comment record.
The rulemaking stage matters. An NPRM is a request for input, not a prohibition, and the comment period typically runs months before the FCC votes on a final rule. Until then, the named companies can keep importing and marketing their previously authorized equipment. The drone-trade press has been tracking the enforcement arc since the July fines, and the next concrete milestone is the FCC's response to the comments it receives, which will determine whether the nine-name list becomes a category or stays an enforcement file.