Court Blocks Amazon Ban on Perplexity AI Agents

A court of appeals blocked a lower court’s order that would have prevented Perplexity’s artificial intelligence shopping agents from visiting Amazon’s website, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (March 17).

The lower court’s order will remain paused until the appeals court has considered Perplexity’s appeal, according to the report.

A Perplexity spokesperson told Bloomberg: “We will continue to fight for people’s right to choose their own AI.”

Amazon declined to comment on the ruling, per the report.

Reuters reported Tuesday that in its request to pause the lower court’s order, Perplexity told the appeals court: “Enjoining the use of Perplexity’s signature product on one of the internet’s most important websites would cause devastating harm to the company and consumers alike.”

PYMNTS reported in November that Amazon fired the first volley in this legal battle with a cease-and-desist letter against Perplexity that accused the company of violating its terms of service and of potentially breaching federal and California computer fraud statutes.

Perplexity rejected Amazon’s accusations in a blog post in which it described Amazon’s action as an attempt to block independent AI tools from operating across the open web. The company wrote that “large corporations use legal threats and intimidation to block innovation” and argued that its Comet browser acts only on behalf of the user.

Amazon secured the temporary injunction to stop Perplexity’s AI agent from shopping and making purchases on its site on March 9. A federal judge ruled that Amazon provided “strong evidence” that Perplexity’s Comet browser accessed its site without authorization from Amazon, and that Amazon had shown “a likelihood of success on the merits of its claim.”

At the same time, the judge paused the order for a week so Perplexity could appeal it.

PYMNTS reported March 11 that this case is shaping up to be one of the first major courtroom tests of agentic commerce. The larger backdrop to the legal battle between Amazon and Perplexity is that other retailers are taking a more experimental approach. Walmart and Target, for example, are testing ways to work with AI shopping platforms while preserving their own role in the transaction.