Texas just fired the opening shot in what could become a multi-state legal assault on Chinese-linked tech hardware. Attorney General Ken Paxton filed suit against TP-Link this week, alleging the router giant is deliberately misleading American consumers about its ties to China while serving as "an open window" for Chinese intelligence agencies. The lawsuit, obtained by The Verge, marks the first major state-level legal challenge to a company that controls nearly 65% of the U.S. home router market, according to industry estimates.
TP-Link thought it had solved its China problem by moving its global headquarters to California last year. Texas isn't buying it. Attorney General Ken Paxton dropped a bombshell lawsuit this week accusing the router maker of running an elaborate shell game to hide its Chinese origins while potentially exposing millions of American homes to foreign surveillance.
According to court documents filed in Texas, Paxton claims TP-Link is "masking its Chinese connections" despite controlling what industry analysts estimate is roughly 65% of the U.S. home and small business router market. The complaint alleges the company's networking devices function as "an open window for Chinese-sponsored threat actors and Chinese intelligence agencies" to access American networks.
The timing couldn't be worse for TP-Link. The Shenzhen-founded company has spent years trying to scrub its Chinese identity from public view. In 2018, it opened a manufacturing facility in Vietnam in what appeared to be a strategic pivot away from China-based production. Then in 2024, the company made an even bigger move, centralizing its global headquarters in the United States and forming TP-Link Systems as its American entity.
