By Les Hubbard
Publication Date: 2026-03-10 23:41:00
Amazon secured a temporary court order preventing startup Perplexity from using its Comet AI browser to access and scrape Amazon’s website.
The lawsuit, filed by Amazon in November, accused Perplexity of disguising its AI agents to continue scraping the site without permission.
The big picture: U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney ruled Amazon presented “strong evidence” that Comet accessed the website at users’ command but without Amazon’s consent.
- Amazon demonstrated it spent over $5,000 and numerous employee hours developing ways to block Comet and prevent future unauthorized access to its systems.
- The court found Amazon showed a likelihood of success on its claim, justifying the preliminary injunction.
Zoom in: Perplexity’s Comet AI helps shoppers find and buy items on Amazon, but the company claims the lawsuit is a “bully tactic” and intends to fight for user rights.
- The judge’s order includes a weeklong stay, allowing Perplexity time to file an appeal.
- Amazon argued the AI agents posed security risks to customer data, since the bots could potentially access private accounts requiring passwords.
- Advertising complications also arose, as Amazon has to filter AI-generated traffic from human impressions to fulfill advertiser contracts.
- Amazon has already blocked dozens of AI agents from its site, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, while focusing on its own shopping assistant, Rufus.
