3 active designations from the surveyed authorities. Each is a public government record with a different legal effect — read the type label and scope on each.
US BIS (Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security)Export controlEntity List · 2019-10-09
A license is required to export US-origin items/technology to the entity, typically reviewed under a presumption of denial (e.g. BIS Entity List). It is not an asset freeze.
VERIFIED against the primary Federal Register notice. Hikvision was added to the Entity List (15 CFR Part 744, Supplement No. 4) effective October 9, 2019. A license is required for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR); the license-review policy is case-by-case for ECCNs 1A004.c, 1A004.d, 1A995, 1A999.a, 1D003, 2A983, 2D983, and 2E983 and for EAR99 items described in the Note to ECCN 1A995, and presumption of denial for all other items. Listed because the entity has been implicated in human-rights violations and abuses in China's campaign of repression and high-technology surveillance against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). This is an export-control restriction on US-origin items, not an asset freeze or a ban on commercial trade with the company generally.
Federal Register: Addition of Certain Entities to the Entity List (FR-2019-10-09, Doc. 2019-22210), BIS
US FCC (Federal Communications Commission)Equipment-authorization restrictionCovered List (Section 2, Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019) · 2021-03-12
Covered equipment cannot receive new FCC authorization for certain purposes. It is not a sanction or asset freeze and does not ban all of the company’s products (e.g. FCC Covered List).
VERIFIED against FCC Public Notice DA-21-309 (released March 12, 2021), which published the initial Covered List and named 'Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Company' among the five inaugural entities. Hikvision's telecommunications and video-surveillance equipment is covered only 'to the extent it is used for the purpose of public safety, security of government facilities, physical security surveillance of critical infrastructure, and other national security purposes' (extends to subsidiaries/affiliates). This is an equipment-authorization restriction, NOT an OFAC-style sanction or asset freeze: under the FCC's November 2022 rules (FCC 22-84, effective for new applications after Feb. 6, 2023), covered equipment cannot receive new FCC equipment authorization for marketing/import for those purposes; prior authorizations were not revoked. Note: in Hikvision USA, Inc. v. FCC, 97 F.4th 938 (D.C. Cir. 2024), the court upheld the rules generally but found the FCC's definition of 'critical infrastructure' unjustifiably broad and remanded that prong for the Commission to revise; the Hikvision Covered List entry itself remains in effect.
FCC: List of Equipment and Services Covered By Section 2 of The Secure Networks Act (Covered List)
US Treasury OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control)Investment restrictionNon-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List (NS-CMIC List) · 2021-06-03
US persons are barred from buying or selling the company’s publicly traded securities. It is not an asset freeze or a ban on ordinary commercial trade (e.g. Treasury NS-CMIC List).
VERIFIED against the OFAC recent-action announcement. Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. was named in the Annex to Executive Order 14032 (signed June 3, 2021), placing it on the NS-CMIC List. The EO prohibits US persons from purchasing or selling the publicly traded securities (and securities derivative of, or designed to provide investment exposure to, such securities) of the company; the securities-transaction prohibition for the inaugural listees took effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT on August 2, 2021, with a divestment wind-down period (ending June 3, 2022). This is a capital-markets/investment restriction only — it does NOT freeze assets, block correspondent banking, place the company on the SDN List, or bar ordinary commercial trade with the company.
OFAC: Issuance of Executive Order Addressing the Threat from Securities Investments that Finance Certain Companies of the PRC; Introduction of the NS-CMIC List (June 3, 2021)