ONVIF Suspends Huawei

Huawei has been “suspended,” and effectively expelled, from ONVIF so long as U.S. sanctions remain on the mega Chinese manufacturer, according to a report released by IPVM.

• By John Honovich
• Sep 23, 2019

Huawei has been “suspended,” and effectively expelled, from ONVIF so long as U.S. sanctions remain on the mega Chinese manufacturer, according to a report released by IPVM.

Inside this note, we examine what happened and what this means for the unprecedented step of being removed from the video surveillance industry's global interoperability standard. Apparently, ONVIF sent a Sept. 19, 2019, email to members titled “Huawei Technologies ONVIF Membership.”

As many of you know, the listing of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei) and 68 non-US affiliates of Huawei as “Entity List” companies by the government has necessitated a series of actions by ONVIF. That designation as an “Entity List” company bars the transfer to Entity List companies of U.S. technology that is subject to the Export Administration Regulations.

Following a discussion within the Steering Committee, and after conferring with legal counsel, ONVIF placed Huawei’s membership into suspension until this matter is resolved. As such, Huawei and its employees and affiliates do not have access to the ONVIF members-only forums, tools, specifications, and documents, works in progress, or any other material either confidentially held by ONVIF or fulfilled from the ONVIF website. This means Huawei’s employees are not be allowed to participate or attend ONVIF non-public events or to participate within the ONVIF Committees or Work Groups. We communicated these actions and steps to Huawei.

ONVIF asks that members refrain from disclosing, sharing or communicating with Huawei about non-public ONVIF technical information, and ensure that Huawei is not a recipient of any ONVIF-related email or communication related to non-public ONVIF technical information. It asks that any ongoing threads of discussion that may be occurring off of the email reflectors and direct emails remove Huawei participants.

This follows the government sanctioning Huawei in May 2019, putting them on the entity list.

ONVIF declined to provide any further clarification of what this means or why it was done.

Huawei has been an ONVIF full member for years. Full is the highest-paid level, of which 26 of 491 members are listed. Huawei has 141 officially ONVIF-conformant products, with the most recent ones approved earlier in September 2019.