The report of a legal antitrust investigation follows a report in December that US authorities had been investigating whether or not to ban TP-Hyperlink wi-fi routers, which had been focused in high-profile attacks linked to the Chinese language authorities. TP-Hyperlink was based in China in 1996 however mentioned it relocated its headquarters to the US in October 2024.

TP-Hyperlink was break up into two entities, one based mostly within the US and one based mostly in China, Bloomberg wrote, however the “US-based entity being scrutinized by Justice and Commerce Division officers nonetheless has substantial operations in mainland China.” One other Bloomberg article earlier this month described how TP-Hyperlink nonetheless has a large presence in China.

The Bloomberg report mentioned the legal antitrust investigation is along with “a parallel civil investigation into the corporate’s pricing practices” that was revealed in earlier reporting. Civil complaints have a decrease burden of proof, whereas legal probes can lead to jail time for people and corporations being fined as a lot as $100 million, Bloomberg wrote, noting that such “probes can take years to finish and should not lead to expenses.”

TP-Hyperlink advised Bloomberg that it hadn’t obtained an inquiry from the Justice Division however is able to cooperate. “The corporate additionally denied promoting merchandise under value and mentioned it maintains ‘a coverage of transparency in our enterprise practices, guaranteeing truthful pricing for our valued prospects,'” the article mentioned.

We contacted TP-Hyperlink immediately and can replace this text if it supplies any additional remark.