Perplexity Presses Appeals Court To Scrap Amazon Ban

Perplexity is pressing federal appellate judges to reverse an order banning its artificial intelligence shopping agent, Comet, from Amazon.

The ban was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Maxine Chesney in the Northern
District of California, who ruled in March that Amazon would likely prove its claim that Perplexity violates a 40-year-old anti-hacking law by allegedly accessing the retailer’s site without its
authorization. Chesney said in her ruling that Amazon provided “strong evidence” that Perplexity accesses Amazon users’ password-protected accounts with their permission, but without
Amazon’s. 

The artificial intelligence company argues in papers filed Wednesday with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that Amazon’s claims are “a fundamental misfit” for the federal
anti-hacking law, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as well as a related California measure.

“There is no basis in the relevant statutes for this suit,” Perplexity writes.

The battle dates to November, when Amazon claimed Perplexity was “trespassing” into Amazon.com’s systems via the Comet browser. The retailer specifically alleged that Comet 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.

Perplexity is now
appealing Chesney’s ruling to the 9th Circuit, which temporarily paused the ban while the appeal proceeds.

Among other arguments, Perplexity says it isn’t the one…