By Matthew Broersma
Publication Date: 2026-03-18 09:00:00
Perplexity AI has been granted a stay of a court order that would have blocked its shopping agent from accessing Amazon’s platform.
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals halted the order on Monday, hours before it was to take effect on Tuesday, as a short-term measure that is to remain in place while the court considers Perplexity’s appeal of the lower court’s order.
Bot purchases
Amazon sued Perplexity in November, saying the AI start-up committed computer fraud by sending its shopping agent, which is built into its Comet browser, to access password-protected user account information and make purchases.
The activities are carried out on behalf of users, but without Amazon’s consent.
Amazon said Perplexity ignored repeated requests to stop accessing its platform, and disguised its bots’ activities as those of humans.
‘Right to choose’
Perplexity said it would continue to fight for its customers’ “right to choose their own AI”.
US District Judge Maxine Chesney of San Francisco last week issued the order on 9 March, but suspended it for a week to give Perplexity a chance to appeal.
