Amazon Wins Court Order To Block Perplexity's AI Shopping Bots

Source: Slashdot

Background

Last November, Amazon sued Perplexity, demanding that the AI search startup stop allowing its AI browser agent, Comet, to make purchases for users online.

Court Ruling

U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney issued a temporary injunction blocking Perplexity from scraping Amazon’s website. In her ruling, Judge Chesney wrote that Amazon provided “strong evidence” that Comet accessed the retailer’s site at the user’s direction but without authorization from Amazon.

The judge noted that Amazon submitted “essentially undisputed evidence” that it spent more than $5,000 responding to the issue, including “numerous hours” by employees to develop tools that block Comet from accessing private customer tools and to prevent future unauthorized access.

“Given such evidence, the Court finds Amazon has shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its claim,” Chesney wrote.

The order includes a week‑long stay to allow Perplexity to appeal.

Implications

Amazon’s original complaint argued that Perplexity’s agents pose security risks to customer data because they “can act within protected computer systems, including private customer accounts requiring a password.”

The company also highlighted challenges for its advertising business. When AI systems generate ad traffic, the impressions must be detected and filtered out before advertisers can be billed. Amazon stated that this requires modifications to its advertising systems, including new detection mechanisms to identify and exclude automated traffic, in order to maintain contractual obligations with advertisers who pay only for legitimate human impressions.