Perplexity Battles Amazon Over Shopping Agent Ban

Perplexity late Wednesday asked a federal
appellate court to vacate an injunction that would ban the artificial intelligence company’s shopping agent, Comet, from Amazon.

The ban, handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Maxine Chesney in the Northern District
of California, was temporarily stayed late last month.

Perplexity’s move comes in a dispute dating to November, when Amazon claimed the artificial intelligence company was
violating a 40-year-old anti-hacking law, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, by “trespassing” into Amazon’s server.

The retailer alleged that Perplexity’s Comet browser shopped
for users and made purchases on their behalf, even after Amazon attempted to implement technological blocks and sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter.

Chesney said in a
March 9 ruling that Amazon was likely to prevail with its legal claim and issued an order prohibiting Comet from continuing to access the retail site.

Perplexity, which is
appealing that order, disputes that it violated the anti-hacking law. That statute broadly prohibits anyone from accessing a computer server without authorization.

“Amazon’s
theory … represents an alarming expansion of the CFAA and corresponding state law,” Perplexity argues, using an acronym for the anti-hacking law.

“Deploying that theory
against Perplexity in this suit threatens competition and consumer choice during a critical moment in the development of AI,” Perplexity adds.

Among other arguments,…