Amazon wins court order to block Perplexity's AI shopping agent

A federal judge temporarily blocked startup Perplexity from accessing Amazon‘s site with its Comet artificial intelligence browser, according to court filings.

Amazon sued Perplexity in November, alleging the startup took steps to “conceal” its AI agents so they could continue to scrape the online retailer’s website without its approval. Perplexity called the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. district court in the Northern District of California, a “bully tactic.”

Perplexity’s Comet allows shoppers to ask the assistant to find items on Amazon and make purchases.

In a ruling dated Monday, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney wrote that Amazon has provided “strong evidence” that Perplexity’s Comet browser accessed its website at the user’s direction, but “without authorization” from the e-commerce giant.

Chesney said Amazon submitted “essentially undisputed evidence” that it spent more than $5,000 to respond to the issue, including “numerous hours” where its employees worked to develop tools to block Comet from accessing its private customer tools and to prevent the tool from “future unauthorized access.”

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

Amazon spokesperson Maxine Tagay said the preliminary injunction is an important step to maintain “a trusted shopping experience” for its customers.

“We look forward to continuing to make our case in court,” Tagay said.

Perplexity told CNBC in a statement that it “will continue to fight for the right of internet users to choose whatever AI they want.”

Chesney’s ruling includes a weeklong stay to allow Perplexity to appeal the order.

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

The company also said Perplexity’s agents created challenges for the company’s advertising business, because when AI systems generate ad traffic, the impressions have to be detected and filtered out before advertisers can be billed.

“This requires modifications to Amazon’s advertising systems, including developing new detection mechanisms to identify and exclude automated traffic,” Amazon wrote in its complaint. “These system adaptations are necessary to maintain contractual obligations with advertisers who pay only for legitimate human impressions.”

Amazon has broadly locked down its shopping sites from AI agents, blocking dozens of agents, OpenAI‘s ChatGPT, while investing in its homegrown tools like Rufus, a shopping assistant featured on its website and app.

— CNBC’s Ashley Capoot contributed to this report.

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