Amazon has filed a federal lawsuit against Perplexity AI, escalating a growing tension over the role of artificial intelligence in online commerce.
The tech giant accuses the San Francisco–based startup of violating its terms of service by allowing an AI browser agent, known as Comet, to make purchases on behalf of users through Amazon’s platform.
In a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court, Amazon argued that Perplexity’s tool constitutes computer fraud by disguising its automated activity as that of a real human shopper.
The company said that by doing so, Perplexity “degrades the Amazon shopping experience” and introduces potential privacy risks.
The legal action follows a cease-and-desist letter sent last week demanding that Perplexity end the practice. People familiar with the matter said Amazon’s lawsuit may help define how far “agentic AI” software designed to perform real-world tasks on users’ behalf can go in automating human actions online.
Perplexity, valued at roughly $20 billion, dismissed the lawsuit as a power play by a dominant competitor.
“This just proves Amazon is a bully,” a company spokesperson said to Bloomberg. In a blog post, the startup argued that consumers should be free to choose which AI agents assist them with shopping and accused Amazon of stifling innovation to protect its own products.
The dispute highlights a broader debate over how AI agents should interact with major platforms. Perplexity’s Comet browser, like OpenAI’s and Google’s emerging AI assistants, aims to move beyond simple chat interfaces to handle complex tasks such as researching, emailing, and shopping autonomously.
Amazon maintains that any automated system accessing its website must disclose itself clearly. “No different than any other intruder, Perplexity is not allowed to go where it has been expressly told it cannot,” the company said in its filing.
Amazon has been developing its own AI-powered shopping tools, including Buy For Me and Rufus, both designed to assist users within its app ecosystem. Yet the company claims Perplexity’s bot circumvented its security measures, disguising itself as a Google Chrome browser after being blocked.
An Amazon spokesperson said the company welcomes third-party services that “operate openly and respect our policies,” but described Perplexity’s agent as offering “a significantly degraded shopping and customer service experience.”
Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas countered that Amazon’s restrictions are anti-competitive. “Agents should have the same rights and responsibilities as real users,” he said.
While Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently said AI shopping tools “still lack personalization,” he added that the company is open to future partnerships with third-party agent developers.
Ironically, Perplexity is a major customer of Amazon Web Services and counts Amazon founder Jeff Bezos among its investors.