Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, is suing AI chatbot search engine Perplexity over its AI browser agent, Comet, making purchases on users’ behalf on Amazon.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, Amazon is asserting that Perplexity has committed computer fraud by failing to disclose when Comet is making purchases on behalf of a user, in place of the actual user, which Comet impersonates. According to Amazon, this is in violation of its terms of service. Amazon sent a cease-and-desist letter last Friday, accusing the AI company of degrading the user experience on Amazon, and introducing privacy vulnerabilities.
“No different than any other intruder, Perplexity is not allowed to go where it has been expressly told it cannot; that Perplexity’s trespass involves code rather than a lockpick makes it no less unlawful.” The Everything Store said in its filing.
Perplexity Pushes Back
Perplexity is less than thrilled with this turn of events. “This is Amazon’s first legal salvo against an AI company, and it is a threat to all internet users” the company said in a blog post response to the suit. With Amazon having introduced a feature in April (still only in testing) called “Buy For Me”, an AI shopping assistant, it is not difficult to see how Perplexity could cast doubt on Amazon’s stated motivations for suing. “It’s a bully tactic to scare disruptive companies like Perplexity out of making life better for people.”
Another important factor in Amazon’s treatment of agentic AI buyers is the role of advertisements in Amazon’s business model. The more bots purchase instead of users, the less valuable Amazon’s product recommendations become. “They’re more interested in serving you ads, sponsored results, and influencing your purchasing decisions with upsells and confusing offers” than in a tool making shopping easier for customers, Perplexity insists.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy suggested that the customer experience using AI shoppers was “Not good” on an earnings call last week, suggesting errors in pricing, user shopping history, and delivery estimates. Lara Hendrickson, spokesperson for Amazon, has also highlighted customer experience as an area of concern regarding Comet. “We’ve repeatedly requested that Perplexity remove Amazon from the Comet experience, particularly in light of the significantly degraded shopping and customer service experience it provides,” according to Bloomberg.
A Question of User Rights
Perplexity has framed the issue as a straightforward matter of user rights, and asserted that AI agents are fundamentally no different from any other tool, “The law is clear that large corporations have no right to stop you from owning wrenches” Perplexity said, adding that “A user agent is your AI assistant—it has exactly the same permissions you have.”
The results of the lawsuit could have long-term implications for structuring the boundaries of AI agent use. Currently it’s unclear what, if any, rules should exist to distinguish the online behavior of agentic AI versus actual people. As in other moments of great innovation, the technology is progressing faster than the law can straighten out its legitimate uses. For now, we will have to wait and see which interpretation of AI agents’ role will prevail.
The case is Amazon.com Services LLC v. Perplexity AI Inc., 3:25-cv-09514, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).
