Perplexity Wins Appeal Against Amazon in AI Agent Shopping Lawsuit

A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of Perplexity, an AI shopping tool startup, in its lawsuit against Amazon. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a preliminary injunction blocking Perplexity's AI shopping tools on Amazon.

The ruling found that users accessed Amazon through the AI agent under federal law, not the company itself. This distinction is crucial as it could shape future legal battles over agentic AI and online commerce.

The dispute began in November when Amazon sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter before filing suit. Amazon claimed that Perplexity's Comet browser disguised automated traffic as standard web browsing, violating its terms of service and accessing customer accounts without authorization.

Perplexity argued that Comet acted only with users' permission using credentials stored on their own devices and accused Amazon of trying to block consumer choice in AI assistants. The court's decision indicates that courts may approach AI agents acting on behalf of users differently.