DJI has allegedly been banned from exhibiting at CES 2023 due to its inclusion on the US Department of Commerce Entity List for human rights violations.
Update: CTA just confirmed to DroneXL by email that “Companies on the Department of Commerce Entity List are not allowed to exhibit at CES.” The relevant language is part of the CTA CES 2023 exhibitor contract.
DJI was added to the list in 2020 because of “wide-scale human rights abuses within China through abusive genetic collection and analysis or high-technology surveillance,” according to the U.S. Commerce Department.
A source in the drone industry tells us that DJI did intend to be present at CES 2023. However, the dronemaker was not permitted to have a booth since the Consumer Technology Association apparently forbids any firm that is on the Entity List for human rights violations from participating.
Huawei not banned from CES 2023
It’s interesting to note that despite being on the Entity List, Huawei was still allowed to exhibit at CES in 2020. In 2023, the business will not be exhibiting at the expo. Huawei is on the list for national security concerns, which apparently is not in violation of the CTA’s terms and conditions.
We’ve reached out to DJI and CTA for comment on the dronemaker’s absence from the world’s biggest consumer electronics exhibition.
We will update this article if and when we hear back from DJI and/or CTA.
