Amazon has filed a lawsuit against AI startup Perplexity, alleging that its browser agent "Comet" made unauthorized purchases on the platform on behalf of users — a dispute that raises fundamental questions about the role of autonomous AI agents online.
Amazon has filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI in U.S. federal court, aiming to stop the startup’s AI browser "Comet" from purchasing products on behalf of its users. According to the complaint filed in San Francisco, Amazon accuses the company of unauthorized access and violations of its terms of service, which prohibit automated tools such as "data mining, robots, or similar extraction tools."
Amazon claims that Perplexity disguised its AI agents to look like ordinary Chrome browser users. The e-commerce giant alleges "computer fraud" and says Perplexity failed to disclose that Comet was acting autonomously on behalf of real people. Amazon first asked the startup to stop deploying such agents in November 2024. By August 2025, however, Perplexity’s new version of Comet was again active, prompting Amazon to block the access — which Perplexity then allegedly bypassed with a new workaround.
Amazon cites transparency and user protection
According to Amazon spokesperson Lara Hendrickson, third-party AI services must "operate openly and respect a service provider’s decision whether or not to participate." Amazon claims that Perplexity’s practice "degrades the shopping experience," citing inaccurate delivery estimates, poor recommendations, and inconsistent pricing. In the court filing, Amazon compared Comet’s actions to those of an "intruder," saying that the fact the intrusion involves code "makes it no less unlawful."
Amazon also pointed to its own AI shopping experiments. In April, the company began testing a feature called "Buy For Me", which allows in-app purchases from external websites. Another AI assistant, "Rufus", is designed to recommend products and add them to carts. CEO Andy Jassy said the company is exploring more AI agents but stressed that the technology must ensure a positive and transparent customer experience.
Perplexity calls the lawsuit intimidation
Perplexity founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas called the lawsuit "bullying" by a market giant. The company argues Amazon is trying to stifle competition. Srinivas said users should be able to choose which assistant helps them shop on Amazon and added, "Agents should have all the same rights and responsibilities as real human users. It’s not Amazon’s job to monitor that."
In a blog post, Perplexity described the cease-and-desist letter as "an aggressive legal threat," rejecting accusations that Comet scrapes or trains on Amazon data. Instead, the company says the agent simply executes purchases under direct user instruction. The post accused Amazon of attempting to "eliminate user rights" to maintain control over advertising-driven shopping results.
The growing use of AI shopping tools could threaten Amazon’s advertising business, which relies on sponsored product placements. Amazon, however, says it remains open to collaboration. CEO Andy Jassy recently told investors that the current user experience of AI shopping agents is "not good," but added that the company is "having conversations" with builders of such tools.
A clash between business partners
The dispute has an ironic twist: Perplexity is a customer of Amazon Web Services and, according to Srinivas, has made "hundreds of millions" in spending commitments with AWS. Amazon previously showcased Perplexity in 2023 as a success story during its cloud conference — and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is himself an investor in the startup.
The case, Amazon.com Services LLC v. Perplexity AI Inc., could set the first court precedent defining how "agentic AI" is allowed to act autonomously within commercial online ecosystems.
Previous conflicts over data use
Earlier, Perplexity had come under fire from publishers and Reddit for allegedly misusing or scraping their content without permission. The company defended itself, arguing it would "always fight vigorously for users’ rights to freely and fairly access public knowledge."
The new lawsuit against Amazon underscores how the boundaries between legitimate automation and unauthorized platform use by autonomous AI agents remain increasingly blurred.
