Amazon loses US court ban on Perplexity's AI shopping tools

On August 4, a U.S. appeals court overturned a temporary ruling that blocked Perplexity from using AI-powered agentic shopping tools on Amazon's platform. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Amazon was unlikely to win its claim that Perplexity's AI agents violated a federal computer-hacking law. This marks the first federal appeals court decision to address the legality of AI agents accessing online platforms, which has significant implications for the burgeoning field of agentic AI tools capable of browsing, shopping, and conducting transactions on the web.

Amazon expressed disappointment with the decision but remains confident in their case and is considering their next steps. Perplexity, however, remains committed to protecting the rights of internet users to choose their preferred AI tools. The court sided with Perplexity's argument that the users, through the use of their AI agents, accessed Amazon's platform under the law, rather than Perplexity itself.