Texas AG sues Anzu, claims firm sells DJI clones
By DRONELIFE Options Editor Jim Magill
Claiming that the corporate is “a wolf in sheep’s clothes” the Texas legal professional basic has sued Anzu Robotics, for allegedly failing to reveal its enterprise relationship with DJI, and in creating merchandise which might be primarily clones of DJI’s UAVs.
In a go well with filed within the District Court docket of Collin County, Texas Lawyer Common Ken Paxton alleges that Anzu engaged in “false, deceptive, or misleading acts or practices.” The go well with lists seven counts of alleged violations of the Texas Misleading Commerce Practices Shopper Safety Act (DTPA) and seeks a jury trial in opposition to the corporate.
If the courtroom guidelines within the state’s favor, Texas is entitled to recuperate as much as $10,000 for every violation of the DTPA.
The lawsuit repeats plenty of earlier allegations made in opposition to the Austin-based firm: that Anzu was created as a “cutout” firm by DJI in an effort to promote DJI-like merchandise within the U.S. regardless of current and proposed bans, and that Anzu has misrepresented its current enterprise relationship with DJI.
As well as, the go well with claims that Anzu has misrepresented its insurance policies and practices relating to: buyer information sharing with DJI; software program safety vulnerabilities; customized firmware improvement and its advertising of the Anzu Raptor merchandise as an American-made UAVs, with out the security-related baggage that’s related to DJI’s drones.
DroneLife tried to contact Anzu and its CEO, Randall Warnas, by telephone and electronic mail, to get a response to the go well with, however didn’t obtain a response as of press time.
“Anzu Robotics merchandise are nothing greater than a twenty first century Trojan Horse linked to the [Chinese Communist Party],” Paxton stated in an announcement.
The go well with additionally alleges that Anzu merchandise had been created as a means of getting across the inclusion of DJI merchandise on the Texas’ Prohibited Applied sciences Listing, which prohibits using a listed firm’s {hardware} on state-owned gadgets and networks.
“Anzu’s drones are DJI drones in all however identify—with an identical {hardware}, an identical firmware, an identical software program, and solely a coat of inexperienced paint and an American label to differentiate them from their Chinese language counterparts,” the go well with states.
The go well with doesn’t signify the primary time that Anzu Robotics has come below fireplace for allegedly being a stand-in firm for DJI. Nearly for the reason that time that the corporate first launched its Raptor and Raptor T drone platforms, the UAVs have come below scrutiny from critics who described them as DJI knock-offs.
In August 2024 the Home Choose Committee on the Strategic Competitors Between america and the Chinese language Communist Celebration despatched letters to Warnas and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, demanding readability on Anzu’s relationship with DJI.
“Safety researchers have confirmed that Anzu’s Raptor T is basically a DJI Mavic 3 painted inexperienced, with its distant management and utility all working on DJI expertise,” the letter said.
The Texas lawsuit alleges that “Anzu initially did not disclose its relationship with DJI in any respect, even in regulatory filings with the Federal Communications Fee. When safety researchers revealed the connection, Anzu claimed to have developed ‘customized firmware’ that eliminates DJI’s safety dangers.”
The go well with claims that Anzu has harmed its clients by failing to reveal the chance of knowledge leaks.
In a Cyber Safety Assertion on its web site, Anzu makes an attempt to place to relaxation any considerations over attainable information transfers.
“Anzu Robotics is a wholly American-owned firm, making certain that the event and deployment of our drone expertise align with home regulatory requirements and safety protocols,” the assertion says.
“All information captured by our drones is saved domestically on the SD card of the drone itself, minimizing the chance of unauthorized entry throughout transmission. Moreover, the info is encrypted utilizing AES-256 encryption, a sturdy encryption normal that ensures the confidentiality and integrity of your information”
Nonetheless, the lawsuit claims that DJI retains management of the cryptographic keys that encrypt the Anzu drone’s firmware, which suggests DJI, and by extension the Chinese language authorities, “the technical functionality to entry, modify or extract information from Anzu drones.”
The corporate’s safety assertion factors to Anzu’s partnership with Aloft AI, a U.S.-based software program improvement firm, as an additional testomony to its dedication to buyer information safety. “Aloft holds ISO 27001 and SOC 2 TYPE II certifications, demonstrating their dedication to data safety and adherence to rigorous safety practices.”
But the Texas lawsuit seeks to undermine these claims as effectively.
“Removed from being a DJI-independent safety answer, Aloft is itself a DJI-integrated platform,” the go well with states.
In searching for reduction from Anzu’s alleged misrepresentations, the go well with asks the courtroom to challenge a brief restraining order “enjoining Anzu from accumulating, sharing, promoting, disclosing, utilizing or in any other case disclosing any information it collects about Texas shoppers in the course of the pendency of this go well with.”
The litigation additionally requires the issuance of a brief injunction in opposition to Anzu that may forestall the corporate from persevering with its alleged improper conduct pending the ultimate consequence of a trial. As well as, the go well with asks the courtroom to “order Anzu to signify to the general public that its Raptor T drone is a rebranded DJI drone.”
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Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, an expert drone companies market, and a fascinated observer of the rising drone trade and the regulatory atmosphere for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles targeted on the industrial drone house and is a global speaker and acknowledged determine within the trade. Miriam has a level from the College of Chicago and over 20 years of expertise in excessive tech gross sales and advertising for brand new applied sciences.
For drone trade consulting or writing, E mail Miriam.
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