On Thursday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed lawsuits against Lorex and Temu, accusing both companies of serving the interests of the Chinese Communist Party. This marked the third and fourth such lawsuits brought by Paxton within three days.
Lorex, based in Canada, is a well-known manufacturer of home video surveillance technology, primarily selling products like doorbell cameras and baby monitors. The company was previously owned by the Chinese tech firm Dahua Technology, which was blacklisted by the U.S. for allegedly aiding in the persecution of Uighur Muslims by the Chinese government.
In 2025, Paxton announced an investigation into Lorex company.
Temu is a popular e-commerce application owned by the Chinese company PDD Holdings. Paxton accuses Temu of collecting data on American consumers for the benefit of the CCP.
Both Lorex and Temu companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Epoch Times.
Earlier this week, Paxton also sued router company TP-Link, alleging involvement in CCP-funded cyberattacks against the United States, and drone manufacturer Anzu Robotics, accusing them of having collaboration ties with blacklisted company DJI.
In a statement on February 19th, Paxton stated, “Any company that allows the Chinese Communist Party to threaten the safety and security of Americans will face the full force of the law.”
Dahua is a well-known security camera company whose products are supplied to 180 countries and regions, including clients like the Vatican City, Rio Olympics, and London City.
In 2018, Dahua acquired Lorex. In 2019, the U.S. Commerce Department blacklisted Dahua for its involvement in the persecution of Uighur Muslims. The Pentagon later designated it as a CCP military company for the 2021 fiscal year, though no penalties were imposed at the time.
In 2021, the U.S. Congress passed a law requiring the FCC to ban the procurement and use of equipment from blacklisted companies.
On the eve of the ban’s enforcement in 2022, Dahua sold Lorex to Skywatch, based in Taiwan, bypassing the restrictions and exempting Lorex products.
Paxton alleges that “Dahua continues to be involved in the operation of Lorex,” and therefore, a lawsuit was filed against them under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
He accuses the company of “exploiting” parents’ desire to protect their children by placing camera devices in the “most intimate spaces” of their homes.
In 2025, Nebraska also filed a similar lawsuit against Lorex, alleging backdoors and other security issues in their equipment.
Lorex responded at the time, stating, “We intend to vigorously defend against the Attorney General’s allegations and believe that a fair hearing will show that Lorex has taken appropriate measures to protect customer privacy.”
Earlier this year, Texas blacklisted Dahua and several other CCP tech companies, including battery manufacturer CATL, Temu, Alibaba, iFlytek, TP-Link, Shein, and RoboSense LiDAR.
In the lawsuit against Temu, Paxton alleges that the company exposes consumers to “digital security threats” through its website or application and deceives consumers unlawfully.
Paxton said, “Temu uses dangerous software features entirely inappropriate for a simple e-commerce retailer,” and he accused the application of establishing a “backdoor” to bypass user security agreements.
The lawsuit also referenced a 2023 case involving Google. Back then, Google delisted Pinduoduo, the Chinese version of Temu, due to the discovery of malicious software. Although the application was later reinstated, concerns about similar issues with Temu persisted.
As of September 2023, Temu had 82 million active users in the U.S.
This lawsuit cited a report released by Grizzly Research in 2023, concluding that the Temu application posed a national security risk by requesting and obtaining unusually extensive access to user devices’ information.
Paxton stated, “Temu is a spyware app of the Chinese Communist Party disguised as a shopping application. Texans should have transparency, privacy, and protection from foreign hostile forces using their personal data.”