By TFL
Publication Date: 2026-03-11 10:55:00
A federal court in California has granted Amazon’s request for a preliminary injunction in its lawsuit against Perplexity, finding that the e-commerce giant is likely to succeed on the merits of its claims that Perplexity’s Comet browser used “AI agents” to access Amazon’s protected computer systems without authorization. In a newly-issued order, the court barred Perplexity from accessing Amazon’s protected systems using such AI agents and from using Amazon accounts to facilitate that access until the case is resolved.
The Background in Brief: Amazon filed suit against Perplexity AI in November 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing Perplexity of accessing password-protected portions of Amazon’s website, including customer account pages, in order to retrieve information and perform user-requested tasks. Amazon – which maintains that Perplexity’s system disguises its automated activity as human browsing – claims that the conduct violates the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1030, and California Penal Code § 502, both of which prohibit unauthorized access to computer systems.
On the same day that it filed suit, Amazon lodged a motion for a preliminary injunction, seeking to bar Perplexity from accessing its protected computer systems for the duration of the case.
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