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Perplexity wins appeal to keep AI shopping tools on Amazon
The Ninth Circuit said Amazon likely failed to show Perplexity itself accessed Amazon computers under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, citing that users accessed the platform through its agentic browser.
A federal appeals court in the Ninth Circuit overturned an order that had blocked Perplexity’s AI shopping tools on Amazon, giving the startup an early win in a case over how autonomous AI agents can interact with online platforms, according to Decrypt.
The court said Amazon was unlikely to succeed on its claim that Perplexity violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, an anti-hacking law, and it pointed to the mechanism of Perplexity’s agentic AI browser, Comet.
In the ruling, the appeals court said Amazon’s users, not Perplexity, accessed Amazon through Comet, which can browse websites, log into accounts, and make purchases on a user’s behalf.
The dispute began in November after Amazon sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter before filing suit, and a federal judge in March had granted a preliminary injunction that temporarily blocked Comet from shopping on Amazon while the lawsuit proceeds; Decrypt noted the underlying case remains ongoing, but the appellate decision could influence future fights over agentic AI in online commerce.