A San Francisco federal court has determined that Perplexity must stop using its Comet web browser's AI agent to make purchases for users on Amazon's marketplace. District Judge Maxine Chesney found that Amazon had provided strong evidence that Perplexity's Comet browser accesses user password-protected accounts with the user's permission but without authorisation by Amazon.
The ruling marks the first major court victory for an established platform fighting back against autonomous AI shopping agents. Perplexity will have a week to appeal the decision; otherwise it must stop accessing any password-protected areas of Amazon's systems and destroy its copies of Amazon's data while the two companies continue their legal battle.
How the Dispute Escalated
Amazon sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity over the AI company's shopping bots in November, accusing the company of violating its terms of service by using the Comet agent to make purchases. Amazon accused Perplexity of accessing its store and user accounts using disguised or obscured Comet AI agents, including logging into Perplexity-managed Amazon Prime accounts.
Amazon also accused Perplexity of disguising its Comet browser as Google Chrome instead of making its AI agent clearly identifiable. The company has its own shopping bot called Rufus, and Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy said on an earnings call that the company expected to partner with third-party agents over time, but on its own terms.
Perplexity's Defence
Perplexity argues it is merely automating actions that users have already authorised. The company responded with a blog post titled "Bullying is not innovation", arguing that Comet acts on behalf of users who have granted it access to their own accounts, with the position that a user agent inherits the user's permissions.
A Perplexity representative said of the court's decision that the company will continue to fight for the right of internet users to choose whatever AI they want. In its legal filings, Perplexity argued that Amazon was less concerned about cybersecurity than about eliminating a competitor to its own AI shopping tools, contending that AI agents bypass the advertising Amazon shows to human shoppers and that protecting ad revenue was the real motivation for the lawsuit.
What This Means for AI Shopping
The case touches on a question that will become increasingly urgent: who gets to decide what software can access a retailer's platform? The broader lawsuit will test whether the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act applies to AI agents acting at a user's direction on third-party platforms, and how the court ultimately rules could shape how every agentic commerce product interacts with websites that haven't opted into agent access.
AI agents are predicted to make up 25 per cent of e-commerce by 2030, totalling nearly $500 billion in sales each year. The battle between Amazon and Perplexity is not merely about shopping bots; it signals how platforms will respond as autonomous AI becomes a routine way for consumers to browse and buy.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has acknowledged that agentic commerce has a chance to be really good for e-commerce, but said agents aren't good enough yet at personalisation and pricing accuracy. The court's preliminary ruling suggests that until such partnerships are formalised and transparent, major platforms will lean on legal tools to maintain control over who accesses their systems and how.