By Shubhendu Vimal
Publication Date: 2026-08-05 13:50:00
A US appeals court has overturned an injunction that had temporarily stopped Perplexity from using its AI-powered shopping tools on Amazon’s platform.
The dispute centres on Perplexity’s Comet browser, whose AI assistant allows users to carry out tasks, including shopping on Amazon.
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated a preliminary injunction that had barred Perplexity AI from operating its AI-powered Comet browser on Amazon.
The court found that the e-commerce company is unlikely to succeed in its claims under federal and California computer access laws.
The San Francisco-based court said Amazon was unlikely to show that Perplexity’s AI agents breached either the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) or California’s Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (CDAFA).
A three-judge panel found that, on the current record, Perplexity itself did not access Amazon’s computer systems.
The judges said Amazon’s website is accessed by users, while Perplexity’s AI Assistant operates as a tool acting on the user’s instructions.
The court made the same finding on Amazon’s CDAFA claim, stating that the company was also unlikely to succeed on that allegation.
The panel also said the other conditions for granting a preliminary injunction, including irreparable harm, the balance of equities and the public interest, favoured Perplexity.
It said an injunction would…
