Perplexity app in the Apple App Store on a smartphone arranged in Washington on June 1, 2025.
Stephanie Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A federal judge temporarily blocked startup Perplexity’s access. AmazonAccording to court filings, the site is powered by the Comet artificial intelligence browser.
Amazon sued Perplexity in November, alleging that Perplexity took steps to “hide” its AI agents so that they could continue to scrape the online retailer’s websites without authorization. Perplexity called the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, a “bullying tactic.”
Perplexity’s Comet allows shoppers to ask an assistant to find and buy products on Amazon.
In a ruling dated Monday, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney said Amazon presented “strong evidence” that Perplexity’s Comet browser accessed its website at the user’s direction but “without the e-commerce giant’s permission.”
Chesney said Amazon has provided “essentially indisputable evidence” that it has spent more than $5,000 addressing the issue. That includes “extensive hours” spent by employees developing tools to block access to Comet’s private tools for customers and prevent “future unauthorized access” to the tools.
“Given this evidence, the court finds that Amazon has demonstrated a likelihood of success on its claims,” Chesney wrote.
Amazon spokeswoman Maxine Tagay said the preliminary injunction is an important step in maintaining a “trusted shopping experience” for customers.
“We look forward to continuing to argue our case in court,” Tagay said.
“We will continue to fight for the right of internet users to choose the AI they want,” Perplexity told CNBC in a statement.
Chesney’s ruling includes one week for Perplexity to appeal the order.
Amazon wrote in its original complaint that Perplexity’s agents pose a security risk to customer data because they can “operate within protected computer systems, including individual customer accounts that require passwords.”
The company also said Perplexity’s agents posed a challenge to its advertising business because when AI systems generate ad traffic, they must detect and filter out impressions before billing advertisers.
“This requires modifications to Amazon’s advertising systems, including the development of new detection mechanisms to identify and exclude automated traffic,” Amazon writes in the complaint. “These system adaptations are necessary to maintain contractual obligations with advertisers who only pay for legitimate human impressions.”
Amazon has broadly locked down its shopping site from AI agents, blocking dozens of agents, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, while investing in its own tools such as Rufus, a shopping assistant built into its website and apps.
—CNBC’s Ashley Capoot contributed to this report.
Spotlight: Amazon sends Perplexity outages and suspensions via AI browser agent
