Is DJI exiting the US drone market? The company says no — but it would not explain to The Verge what has changed such that it can’t even keep a single drone on shelves.
When I walked into my local Best Buy store today, June 24th, there were zero DJI drones available to purchase. There wasn’t even an empty spot for each drone to go. The entire DJI aisle had been swept clean of price tags, lockers, and products — save a handful of motorized gimbals, action cameras, a single lone RC controller, and an almost empty premium endcap spot where a flagship drone would normally go.
“We’re not really carrying DJI drones anymore because of the US-China thing,” a store employee told me.
Best Buy is not alone. DJI’s own US webstore no longer has any drones in stock, as DroneDJ reported Monday. Despite DJI having an official presence on Amazon, all remaining drones there are sold by third parties with low or unknown quantities of stock. Nor will Best Buy’s website be much more help than its physical store: As of Tuesday, its only remaining DJI drones are the last-gen Mavic 3 Pro, priced at $3,890, a refurbished version of that same Mavic 3 Pro, and a refurbished version of the 2022 DJI Avata. DJI has already released successors for both.
Even Adorama and B&H, the specialty camera stores, appear to be running low on late-model DJI drones. As of Tuesday, most current-gen drones were listed as “temporarily on backorder” or “temporarily out of stock,” save this specific model of the DJI Air 3S, these two specific models of the DJI Flip, and some variants of the budget DJI Neo.
What’s going on? DJI spokesperson Daisy Kong shared the same explanation DJI’s been sharing for the past eight months, accusing US Customs of unfairly scrutinizing its drone imports. Here’s the latest version:
DJI remains committed to the US market. As we’ve previously shared, DJI has been working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to resolve a custom-related misunderstanding. Unfortunately, this has impacted our ability to stock and import drones and parts. We understand the frustration among our customers, but remain hopeful that this will be resolved.
When we asked DJI whether any other factor might be responsible — like the US’s tariffs on China, or China’s own export controls that have reportedly seen drone component prices triple for US buyers — the company had no further comment. Companies like DJI have been wary of blaming either country’s leaders.
In October 2024, DJI told its partners the “misunderstanding” was that US Customs and Border Protection had citing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) as a reason to stop DJI drones from being imported into the United States, following reports that DJI allegedly provided drones to the Chinese government so it could conduct surveillance of Uyghurs. (The Verge has not independently confirmed those reports, DJI has denied it manufactures anything in Xinjiang where China employs forced labor, and DJI is not a listed entity under the UFLPA.)
It’s worth noting we’ve only ever heard DJI’s side of that story, though: to our knowledge, US Customs and Border Protection has never commented on blocking DJI’s drone imports. CBP didn’t respond to The Verge’s request for comment last year, and it didn’t immediately have a response today.
Best Buy denied to The Verge that it is no longer carrying DJI drones, without offering any further explanation. A company spokesperson, responding anonymously from Best Buy’s press email address, did not provide a name when we asked.
If DJI did decide to proactively exit the US drone market, or if Best Buy did decide to proactively cut ties, it wouldn’t be all that surprising. The company has less than six months before a de facto ban on all its new products entering the United States, unless it can convince the US government to 1) audit the company, and 2) get that audit to positively confirm that the dronemaker doesn’t pose a national security threat. That’s a very high bar.
In February, DJI’s head of public policy suggested that in the event of a US ban, DJI could continue to sell current products in the US while it offers new products elsewhere, in an interview with The Verge. But that is already happening ahead of a potential ban. In May, the company skipped the US with its most advanced drone yet, the Mavic 4 Pro.
In addition to drones themselves, DJI’s support website is now warning that it may take 60-90 days for repairs. And in May, we reported how DJI’s back-to-back price hikes took the popular Osmo Pocket 3 camera from $519 to $799 in just two months. There, DJI was willing to say that US-China tariffs were “among the key considerations.”
Source: The Verge
