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On March 9, 2026, U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney granted Amazon a preliminary injunction against Perplexity. The order barred Perplexity and related parties from using Comet’s AI agents to access Amazon’s protected computer systems and required destruction of Amazon data obtained through that access. It is not a final judgment, and it does not make AI shopping agents illegal generally.
The practical question is whether a customer’s permission for an agent to use an Amazon account is enough, or whether Amazon must separately authorize the agent. That dispute is now before the Ninth Circuit in case 26-1444.
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What Comet was doing
Perplexity’s Comet is an AI-enabled browser. Instead of merely recommending products, an agent can interpret a request, search pages, compare items, use stored preferences, fill forms and potentially place an order through a user’s account. That model is often called agentic commerce: software performs actions in an external shopping system rather than only supplying information.
Amazon sued Perplexity in November 2025 in Amazon.com Services LLC v. Perplexity AI, Northern District of California case 25-cv-09514-MMC. Amazon sought preliminary relief while the underlying claims remained unresolved. The court held a hearing on March 6 and signed the injunction on March 9.
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What the injunction blocks
- Using Comet AI agents to access Amazon’s protected computer systems.
- Continuing the challenged access to password-protected portions of Amazon.
- Retaining copies of Amazon data obtained through that access.
- Failing to destroy covered Amazon data and certify compliance under the order’s terms.
The order applies to Perplexity, its agents, employees, successors, assigns and parties acting in concert with it. It is specific to the challenged Amazon access. It does not declare that every browser automation tool, scraper or purchasing bot violates federal law, nor does it necessarily prevent Comet from operating on other websites.
Why Amazon objected
The following are Amazon’s allegations and litigation positions, not final findings on every disputed fact:
- Comet entered password-protected areas using customer credentials.
- Perplexity allegedly presented Comet as an ordinary Chrome browser session rather than identifying it as an AI agent.
- Amazon says it warned Perplexity to stop beginning in November 2024.
- Amazon says it deployed a technical barrier in August 2025 and that a Perplexity software update bypassed it in about 24 hours.
Amazon argued that this created security, privacy, customer-experience and data-control risks. It relied in part on the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and California computer-fraud law. Judge Chesney found Amazon likely to succeed on those claims at the preliminary stage and likely to suffer irreparable harm without relief.
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GeekWire’s contemporaneous account describes the allegations and the court’s reasoning.
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Perplexity’s position is that the Amazon customer authorized Comet to act on the customer’s behalf. It also argues consumers should be free to choose their AI assistant and that Amazon is using computer-fraud and security theories to suppress a competitor to its own shopping products. Perplexity further contends that autonomous agents could create additional transactions, while Amazon’s deeper concern may be losing control over advertising, rankings and monetization.
Amazon’s response, as reflected in the case, is that a user’s permission does not itself authorize a third-party agent to enter Amazon’s protected systems. The distinction is consequential: logging in with valid customer credentials is not automatically the same as having the platform’s authorization for the software performing the access.
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The order is an early assessment, not a definitive rule resolving that distinction for every service. It also does not establish that violating a website’s terms of service alone always constitutes unauthorized access under the CFAA.
Preliminary injunction versus final judgment
| What happened | What it means |
|---|---|
| Preliminary injunction | A temporary measure issued before the merits are finally decided. The court assessed likely success and irreparable harm. |
| Final judgment | A merits decision after the case is fully litigated, potentially including trial or dispositive motions. The March order is not this. |
Perplexity reportedly sought a $1 billion bond. GeekWire reports that Judge Chesney rejected the request, finding the injunction did not threaten Perplexity’s entire business.
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The injunction initially received a seven-day administrative stay so Perplexity could seek relief from the Ninth Circuit. Perplexity appealed as case 26-1444, with oral argument scheduled for June 11, 2026, in Seattle.
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The available docket summary does not establish a final appellate disposition. Some later secondary reports describe the Ninth Circuit as pausing or otherwise affecting the injunction, but the precise operative status on August 18, 2026, requires checking the latest appellate order. Do not treat the March headline alone as proof that the injunction is currently enforceable, lifted or replaced.
Ninth Circuit docket summary · Case and appellate coverage
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The dispute reaches beyond one retailer and one browser. The same authorization problem can arise when agents book travel, order groceries, manage subscriptions, compare prices, or execute enterprise procurement.
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| Model | Advantages | Risks and trade-offs |
|---|---|---|
| Open-web browser automation | Broad retailer coverage and little integration friction | Legal uncertainty, bot detection, breakage and security concerns |
| Official API or retailer partnership | Clear permissions and more stable technical access | Limited coverage, negotiation costs and retailer control |
| Human-in-the-loop checkout | Fewer accidental purchases | Less convenience and automation |
| Fully autonomous purchasing | Maximum convenience | Highest risk of mistakes, disputed authorization, fraud and liability |
| Retailer-owned agent | Better inventory and fulfillment integration | Potential preference for the retailer’s products, ads and ecosystem |
What consumers should watch for
- Wrong product, size, quantity or variant.
- Price, tax, shipping or delivery changes before checkout.
- Stale inventory or misread return policies.
- Fraud alerts, account suspension, CAPTCHA or two-factor-authentication interruptions.
- Recommendations that do not clearly distinguish sponsored listings or commercial incentives.
- Exposure of stored credentials and payment tokens to third-party infrastructure.
Users considering autonomous purchasing should set explicit spending limits, require approval before payment, review the exact item and seller, and avoid granting broader account access than necessary. Those are practical safeguards, not a statement that any particular agent is authorized by Amazon.
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| November 2024 | Amazon says it began warning Perplexity about the challenged conduct. |
| August 2025 | Amazon says it deployed a technical block that Perplexity allegedly bypassed through an update within about 24 hours. |
| November 2025 | Amazon filed the federal lawsuit. |
| March 6, 2026 | Preliminary-injunction hearing. |
| March 9, 2026 | Judge Chesney signed the preliminary injunction. |
| March 2026 | Perplexity appealed to the Ninth Circuit, case 26-1444; the order included a seven-day administrative stay. |
| June 11, 2026 | Oral argument was scheduled in Seattle; the available docket material does not establish the final appellate result. |
What remains unresolved
- Whether Amazon ultimately proves its CFAA and California claims on the merits.
- Whether the Ninth Circuit changes, narrows or leaves the preliminary relief in place.
- What technical signals or agreements would count as valid authorization for third-party agents.
- How retailers will balance account security and data control with consumer choice and automated access.
The case therefore tests an important boundary without drawing a universal line: a customer may authorize an AI assistant for the customer’s own purposes, while the retailer may still contest the agent’s access to protected systems. The final legal and commercial rules will depend on the merits litigation, appellate orders and any authorized integrations that follow.
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