Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe they are not regulating radio receiver usage, but the just the possession of it, which would be a separate kind of regulatory space.
All radio receivers have local oscillators built into their receiving circuitry that actually transmits energy that can be detected by specialized receivers.
Not so much with modern ADC based receivers, it is possible that the only oscillator is at a fixed frequency and the only “tuning” happens in a computer.