Amazon Takes Legal Action Against Perplexity Over AI Tool Usage
Amazon.com Inc. is taking legal action against Perplexity AI Inc. in an effort to prevent the startup from assisting users in purchasing items on the world’s largest online marketplace. This lawsuit sets the stage for a confrontation that could influence the future of agentic artificial intelligence. The US online retailer initiated legal action on Tuesday, seeking to prevent Perplexity from permitting its AI browser agent, Comet, to facilitate online purchases for users. The e-commerce giant alleges that Perplexity has engaged in computer fraud by not revealing when Comet is acting on behalf of a real individual, which breaches Amazon’s terms of service, as stated in the complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco. Amazon is launching a dispute following the issuance of a cease-and-desist letter to the startup on Friday. The tech giant alleges that the smaller company is undermining the Amazon shopping experience and has introduced privacy vulnerabilities, according to sources familiar with the situation. The lawsuit has the potential to establish precedents regarding the extent to which agentic AI can assist individuals in identifying and autonomously executing real-world tasks, beyond merely generating online content. A spokesperson for Perplexity stated that the lawsuit “just proves Amazon is a bully.” In a previous blog post, the startup stated that the larger company was aiming at a competitor with a competing AI agent shopping product and contended that users ought to have the option to select their preferred agent for making purchases on Amazon. “It’s a bully tactic to scare disruptive companies like Perplexity out of making life better for people,” the startup stated.
The confrontation between Amazon and Perplexity presents an initial insight into an impending discussion regarding the management of the increasing number of AI agents that undertake more intricate tasks online for users, such as shopping. Similar to OpenAI and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Perplexity is striving to redefine the conventional web browser through AI, aiming to simplify various tasks for users, including drafting emails and performing research. “Amazon’s request is straightforward: Perplexity must be transparent when deploying its artificial intelligence,” the US retailer stated in its filing. “No different than any other intruder, Perplexity is not allowed to go where it has been expressly told it cannot; that Perplexity’s trespass involves code rather than a lockpick makes it no less unlawful.” Amazon is also developing its own AI agents, including some that are capable of shopping. In April, a feature was introduced – currently in public testing – known as Buy For Me, aimed at enabling shoppers to purchase from brand sites directly within the Amazon shopping app. Another AI assistant, named Rufus, has the capability to browse Amazon’s site, recommend products to shoppers, and add them to a cart. However, a significant portion of the experimentation regarding how agents could engage with the web has been conducted by startups such as Perplexity, which is currently valued at $20 billion. “Amazon’s a company that we’ve actually taken a lot of inspiration from,” stated Perplexity Chief Executive Officer Aravind Srinivas during an interview. “However, I believe it is not customer-centric to compel individuals to utilize solely their assistant, which might not even be the most effective shopping assistant.”
The conditions of use for the Amazon retail site explicitly prohibit “any use of data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools.” In November 2024, Amazon requested that Perplexity halt the deployment of AI agents capable of purchasing products on the site until an agreement could be reached between the two companies, according to sources familiar with the matter. The startup adhered to the requirements. However, by this August, Perplexity began utilizing its new Comet browser agent, which had accessed their users’ Amazon accounts, the letter stated. This time, the agents were identified as a Google Chrome browser user, according to a letter from Amazon. When Perplexity declined to halt its bots, Amazon attempted to obstruct them; however, Perplexity unveiled a new version of Comet to circumvent the security measure. “It’s fairly straightforward that third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses should operate openly and respect service provider decisions whether or not to participate,” said Lara Hendrickson. She stated that other companies, such as food delivery services and online travel agencies, function in a similar manner. “Agentic third-party applications such as Perplexity’s Comet have the same obligations, and we’ve repeatedly requested that Perplexity remove Amazon from the Comet experience, particularly in light of the significantly degraded shopping and customer service experience it provides,” she stated.
In light of Amazon’s cease-and-desist letter regarding Perplexity’s alleged disguise of its agents, Srinivas remarked that he perceives no necessity to differentiate between a user and an agent acting on their behalf. Srinivas contended that agents ought to possess “all the same rights and responsibilities” as a real human user. “It’s not Amazon’s job to survey that,” he stated. In the last 18 months, Perplexity has faced allegations from publishers regarding the unauthorized use of their content in AI-generated news summaries, as well as accusations of acquiring data that was reportedly scraped illegally from Reddit’s discussion platforms. Perplexity has stated that it “will always fight vigorously for users’ rights to freely and fairly access public knowledge.” Srinivas stated that Perplexity’s Comet browser does not engage in training or scraping any information from Amazon with its Comet agent; it solely performs actions necessary to facilitate purchases at the user’s request. Perplexity, in the blog post addressing the cease-and-desist letter, further alleged that Amazon is attempting to “eliminate user rights” to increase ad sales. Shopping agents could potentially emerge as a considerable challenge to Amazon’s profitable advertising sector, which primarily generates revenue by offering prominent placement on its online store in reaction to consumers’ product search inquiries. If bots handle shopping for customers, the value of advertising placement may diminish.
During an earnings call last week, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy remarked that the customer experience for AI shopping agents was “not good,” pointing to issues such as a lack of personalization, inadequate user-specific shopping history, and errors in delivery estimates and pricing. “But I do think we will find ways to partner,” he said, adding that Amazon was having “conversations” with builders of third-party agents. Perplexity is a client of Amazon’s cloud division. Srinivas stated that his company has made “hundreds of millions” in commitments to Amazon Web Services. AWS featured Srinivas prominently during its annual trade show in 2023, consistently highlighting the startup as one of the AI companies that has developed its business, in part, on Amazon’s digital infrastructure. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has made an investment in Perplexity.
