Florida Attorney General Sues TP-Link Over Consumer Misleading Claims

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has initiated a civil lawsuit against TP-Link, alleging that the Wi-Fi router company has misled consumers regarding the security of its devices and its ties to China.

According to reports, the lawsuit was filed in Polk County as part of Florida’s 10th Judicial Circuit. It claims that TP-Link falsely assured customers that its routers and HomeShield security service provided comprehensive protection against every possible security threat. In a recorded video statement, Uthmeier said, “Those claims are not true, and we are bringing the lawsuit against TP-Link.”

In a post on X announcing the lawsuit, Uthmeier expressed that “TP-Link sold Floridians the digital front door to their home network while misrepresenting how secure it was, how separated the company was from China, and what could happen to their data.”

Uthmeier noted that “Chinese state-sponsored hackers exploited TP-Link routers sitting in American living rooms. Many of those models cannot update themselves automatically, and TP-Link has stopped supporting them.”

The lawsuit also questions TP-Link’s statements about its corporate structure and manufacturing processes. TP-Link has maintained that it has separated from China and produces its U.S. products in Vietnam. Uthmeier directly refuted this: “They also told Floridians they had split from China and that they build U.S. products in Vietnam. That is fiction. Research and manufacturing remain rooted in China. Less than one percent of the parts in that Vietnam plant actually come from Vietnam.”

“We will not allow families to be misled into handing their personal data to the Chinese Communist Party,” Uthmeier stated.

Through this lawsuit, Uthmeier seeks an injunction against TP-Link, restitution for consumers in Florida, and penalties under state law. “We are seeking an injunction, restitution for Florida consumers, and the penalties under Florida law,” he added.

In a prior report, Uthmeier was noted for spearheading a shareholder lawsuit against the New York Times, which alleges that its biases against Israel have harmed investors.

“We recently announced that we’re investigating this and looking into a situation where they had to make countless numbers of retractions in certain reporting. On today’s petition, I want to make clear it’s not a lawsuit or challenge to any certain article or editorial discretion. Businesses certainly have First Amendment rights,” Uthmeier explained, emphasizing that the lawsuit fundamentally concerns “corporate governance.”

“But when you are a publicly traded company, and the New York Times is, you have legal responsibilities and duties to your shareholders. And we saw some very dangerous trends that appear to undermine the credibility of what that company is doing,” Uthmeier noted, citing examples of bias, including “72 recent errors where the company admitted in its own correction column, in a very specific coverage area in just eight months, all pro-Hamas style reporting that had to be clawed back as incorrect.”