By Bob Egelko
Publication Date: 2026-08-04 22:42:00
Amazon does not want AI companies to bypass its sign-ons and allow users to shop there without the retailer’s permission.
Amazon was not entitled to block an artificial intelligence browser from accessing its website and enabling users to find and purchase products, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, overturning a judge’s decision in favor of the world’s richest company.
An AI startup in San Francisco, Perplexity, launched its Comet browser last year that allowed customers to search password-protected websites like amazon.com and make purchases from its “store” without contacting Amazon. This March, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney of San Francisco ordered Perplexity to halt its customers’ access. She cited the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a 1986 federal anti-hacking law that prohibits intentionally accessing a computer without authorization, obtaining information and causing a financial loss of $5,000 or more.
But a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco put Chesney’s injunction on hold during Perplexity’s appeal, and on Tuesday a different panel, led by Judge Milan Smith, said Perplexity had not violated Amazon’s rights under the CFAA.
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“It is the user who ‘accesses’ Amazon’s computers,” not Perplexity, Smith said in a 3-0 ruling overturning Chesney’s injunction. He said Perplexity had explained that “any Amazon data was first transmitted to the…
