US Appeals Court Lifts Ban on Perplexity's AI Shopping Tools on Amazon

A federal appeals court has lifted the injunction that barred Perplexity's Comet AI shopping agent from operating on AMZN, reversing a March ruling from a lower court. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Amazon was unlikely to prevail on its claim that Perplexity's AI agents violated federal computer-hacking law, reasoning that it is Perplexity's users, not Perplexity itself, who "access" Amazon's platform through the tool.

Circuit Judge Milan Smith, writing for the panel, said an injunction "would impair consumer choice and needlessly limit development of a nascent technology". The 21-page opinion reverses a decision from U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney in the Northern District of California, who had sided with Amazon in March and ordered Comet blocked from the retailer's site.

The ruling does not resolve the underlying dispute. Amazon can still seek a rehearing before the full appeals court or petition the Supreme Court, leaving open the broader question of whether AI shopping agents can interact with third-party retail platforms without permission.

For now, Perplexity's agents can resume operating on Amazon, a result that could influence how other e-commerce platforms respond to a growing wave of agentic AI shopping tools. Investors may want to watch whether Amazon pursues further litigation or product-level changes to limit automated agent access to its marketplace.