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Amazon sues Perplexity AI for allegedly breaching its platform rules
Amazon has taken legal action against Perplexity AI for secretly using its platform
Amazon sues Perplexity AI for allegedly breaching its platform rules
Perplexity AI faces backlash from Amazon over autonomous shopping bot
In a significant move, Amazon has taken legal action against Perplexity AI, accusing the AI startup of secretly using its platform through an autonomous AI shopping agent.
Filed in a San Francisco court, the lawsuit has alleged that Perplexity’s AI agent, “Comet,” violated Amazon’s terms by making purchases and scraping data from the site without authorisation.
According to the retail giant, this activity bypassed security measures, created privacy risks, and degraded user experience.
In its filing, Amazon has described Comet as a “covert” agent that accessed the platform while posing as a standard Chrome browser.
Despite repeated warnings, the company noted that Perplexity continued the practice, forcing Amazon to take the matter to court.
The complaint has accused Perplexity of computer fraud and violating Amazon’s explicit rules that ban “data mining, robots, or similar extraction tools.”
Amazon stated: “Our request is simple: Perplexity must be transparent when using artificial intelligence (AI).”
However, Perplexity has denied the allegations. A company spokesperson called Amazon’s lawsuit “a bully tactic to silence innovation,” arguing the e-commerce giant is threatened by emerging AI competitors.
The lawsuit underscores the growing tension around agentic AI, i.e., self-operating systems that can perform tasks like shopping, booking, or browsing on behalf of users.