US appeals court allows Perplexity's AI shopping agent back on Amazon

US appeals court allows Perplexity's AI shopping agent back on Amazon

Key Points

- A US appeals court has overturned an injunction that blocked startup Perplexity from using its AI shopping agents on Amazon.

- The court ruled that users themselves access Amazon through the agents, not the AI company. A violation of federal computer fraud law is therefore unlikely to hold up.

- Amazon had sued Perplexity because its AI agents log into customer accounts and place orders. It's the first ruling by a US federal appeals court on the legality of AI agents, but the underlying case remains unresolved.

A US appeals court has overturned the injunction against Perplexity. The reasoning: users access Amazon, not the AI company.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has overturned an injunction that blocked Perplexity from using its agentic AI shopping tools on Amazon's platform. According to Reuters, the court found that Amazon was unlikely to succeed on its claim that Perplexity's AI agents violated a federal computer fraud law.

The deciding factor was a question of attribution. The law prohibits accessing computers and obtaining information without permission. But the appeals court concluded that it was the users who accessed Amazon's platform through the agents, not Perplexity itself. The court sided with the startup's argument on that point.

This is the first ruling by a US federal appeals court on whether AI agents can lawfully access online platforms on behalf of users. The answer matters for an entire field. Agentic systems plan, reason, and carry out tasks with limited human oversight. They browse, shop, and complete transactions across the web.

Amazon isn't accepting the loss. "We respectfully disagree with today's decision on the preliminary injunction," a spokesperson said, adding that the company remains confident and is weighing its options. "We remain confident in our case and are evaluating our next steps." Perplexity spokesperson Jesse Dwyer said, "Perplexity will continue to fight for the right of internet users to choose whatever AI they want."

From the November lawsuit to a reversal on appeal

Amazon sued Perplexity in November, accusing the startup of covertly accessing private Amazon customer accounts through its Comet browser and the AI agent built into it. The agent can log into shopping accounts and place orders on behalf of users. Amazon's complaint alleged security risks and claimed Perplexity had ignored repeated demands to stop. The startup called the lawsuit baseless and a "bald attempt" to keep Amazon customers away from Comet, because AI agents "don't have eyeballs to see the pervasive advertising Amazon bombards its users with."

In March, a federal court in California temporarily barred Perplexity from using agentic AI on Amazon. Judge Maxine Chesney found "strong evidence" that Perplexity accessed password-protected accounts with users' permission but without Amazon's authorization. The startup was also ordered to delete copies of Amazon data. That injunction is now void, but the underlying case hasn't been decided.

Amazon had argued that third-party AI must operate transparently and respect established APIs, pointing to its own tools like "Buy For Me" and the "Rufus" assistant. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas called it "bullying" and argued that agents acting on behalf of users should have the same rights as human users. The business ties between the two companies add another layer to the dispute. Perplexity is an AWS customer with commitments in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and Jeff Bezos is among the startup's investors.

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