Drones and more: Bans that harm customers and don’t actually close the door

Attempted prohibitions of foreign-sourced products based solely on theoretical claims, absent irrefutable supportive factual evidence, only invites domestic-supplier favoritism accusations.

Last year I went on a “bit” of a(nother) drone-buying binge. Following up on the first-generation DJI Mavic Air I’d bought in mid-2021.

And the two DJI Mini 3 Pro drones (once again, accompanied by an abundance of accessories) I’d acquired in mid-2024.

I got two more gently-used drone gear sets from Lensrentals in 2025; the computer vision-based collision avoidance surround-enhanced and LiDAR-augmented Mini 4 Pro.

Followed by a first-person view (FPV) “cinewhoop” drone, the first-generation DJI Avata.

And in-between those two acquisitions, chronologically speaking, was the first-generation DJI Neo I bought from Amazon in a three-battery kit configuration.

What was behind this seeming conspicuous consumption behavior? Curiosity, for one thing; FPV operation, for example, was something that had captured my interest ever since I first saw the famous “Right Up our Alley” video more than a half-decade ago.

An essentially autonomous (albeit optionally still traditionally controllable) drone with a starting price just slightly more than $100 was also intriguing, both personally and professionally.

And I’ve already mentioned the feature set enhancements the Mini 4 Pro offers over its Mini 3 Pro precursor, which were insufficient temptation in 2024 but which I succumbed to a year later once I came across a sufficiently discounted like-new version.

Heavy is the hand that holds the crown

That all said, scarcity fears were admittedly also a factor, driven by seemingly inevitable pending government regulation-driven bans on DJI drones, along with other image capture-capable devices from the company, such as vlogging and action cameras. Back in mid-2024, the U.S. House of Representatives had passed legislation introduced a year-plus earlier, which banned further sales of drones from DJI and other suppliers deemed too friendly to the Chinese Communist Party, despite a longstanding absence of any tangible (public, at least) evidence supportive of this stance.

Although subsequently introduced in the U.S. Senate, it was never voted on, therefore not becoming a law. But that outcome was a false solace; U.S. Customs began blocking imports of DJI drones and other products that same October.

By mid-2025, U.S. retailer inventories of existing DJI devices had notably evaporated. And the company didn’t even bother formally introducing newer drones such as the Mavic 4 Pro, Mini 5 Pro, Neo 2, Avata 360 and Lito 1/X1 in the United States. That all said, as it turns out, the final ruling from the U.S. Federal Communications Committee (FCC), announced two days before Christmas 2025 (believe it or not), admittedly wasn’t as egregious as initially feared, although a further retroactive-recall carve-out remains in place.

Imports of future-announced drones, including future generations of existing drone lines, were prohibited. But existing drones were once again green-lit for shipment and sale, including ongoing firmware updates (for at least a few more years) and broader usage (subject to existing FAA regulations) for products already in customer hands. Which is why you can now find the Mavic 4 Pro, Mini 5 Pro, Neo 2, and Avata 360 for sale at some U.S. retailers.

But only some. Notably, DJI not only subsequently sued the FCC but doesn’t include its latest products on the U.S. version of its online store. Even legacy drones remain unavailable; they’re “out of stock”.

Equally disruptive, the company won’t honor warranty claims coming from U.S. residents for products purchased through third parties. And speaking of which, some large U.S. retailers, such as Amazon (but not others such as Adorama and B&H Photo Video, interestingly), are continuing to decline to inventory and sell the latest DJI drones themselves, although they’ll act as marketplaces and shippers for others.

Meanwhile, DJI is reportedly rebranding its products as coming from “shell” companies to dodge restrictions (at least temporarily). You can still buy anything you want, including supposed banned newer drones such as the Lito 1 and X1, from outside-U.S. sellers via eBay, Mercari, and other online marketplaces. And if you know anyone in Canada or Mexico, or briefly pop across the border or more broadly travel internationally yourself, you can also get your unconstrained DJI “fix” that way. So how much of a ban on new drones is it, really?

What happened to free markets?

Am I suggesting that the U.S. government’s actions are completely misguided? Not at all. Obviously, the People’s Republic of China is a leading adversary, with a vested interest in collecting any and all surveillance information, whether audio, visual, and/or otherwise. And ironically, effective May 1, 2026, China itself has banned all drone sales and rentals in Beijing, the capital, along with restrictions on the broader storage of drones and drone components within the city. So, for one of its leading companies to complain about sales and usage restrictions elsewhere in the world is a “bit” of a “doth protest too much” situation, methinks.

That said, as I’ve mentioned previously, DJI’s longstanding greater-than-90% market share in consumer drones also can’t (or at least shouldn’t) be overlooked, as it reflects both the sizeable installed base and ongoing customer preference. Notable, as well, is the fact that other drone companies such as Skydio have already withdrawn from the broad market, focusing solely on enterprise opportunities going forward.

So, even if the U.S. government had hoped to use a DJI ban to boost the fortunes of alternative domestic suppliers, that alternative supply doesn’t currently exist. And regarding the security angle, while I get it (though I’d still welcome indisputable proof of it) for gear that can directly live-stream audio and images using DJI’s own applications, I remain baffled as to why such bans extend to devices that aren’t directly Internet-connectable, especially those (such as gimbals) with no native multimedia data-capture capabilities.

Anyway, it’s not just consumers like me that’ll be affected. Here, off the top of my head and in no particular order save for how they streamed out of my noggin, are examples of business and civic entities already making notable use of drones, with broader near-term expansion planned.

Restaurants and chains
Food-and-other delivery services
Law enforcement, including border patrol
Fire spotters and fighters
Ranchers and farmers
Medical facilities
Utility companies
Filmmakers
Researchers of all sorts
Musicians and other performers

To wit, here’s just one recent case study from just a few miles to the east of me:

Are many of them currently using DJI-branded equipment? You bet. Can at least some of them switch to non-DJI drones in the future, assuming sufficient supply exists? I suppose. But at what cost? Not insignificant. And can all, or even many, afford the incremental investment? Doubtful.

Thereby likely explaining, at least in part, why what was initially seen as a planned full-stop ban ended up scaled back to a going-forward prohibition…but still…consider, for example, repair and replacement-parts availability impacts, along with aforementioned warranty-coverage issues.

Other conceptually similar, more recent actions by various U.S. government entities involve restrictions on routers and cellular hotspots, along with some (but not all) connected vehicles, solar inverters and robots of all sorts…but this writeup is already running long, so I’ll save those for another day. For now, I welcome reader perspectives in the comments on the issues I’ve raised here!

—Brian Dipert is the associate editor, as well as a contributing editor, at EDN.

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