Amazon just won an early courtroom round against Perplexity. A federal judge granted an injunction tied to Perplexity’s Comet browser, handing Amazon a significant legal win in a fight over how AI shopping agents interact with its site, CNBC first reported.
The ruling puts immediate pressure on one of Perplexity’s most ambitious consumer bets. At the center is Comet, the company’s AI-powered browser push, now facing a judge-ordered halt that hints at broader consequences without giving away the full scope of what comes next.
The standoff returns with a court order attached
The clash itself is not new. Amazon sued Perplexity in November, accusing the startup of trying to “conceal” its AI agents as Comet moved through the retailer’s site.
The dispute has now moved into a more consequential phase. The judge’s order focuses on Comet’s alleged use of agentic AI to reach password-protected parts of Amazon’s website, pushing a browser fight into a direct legal battle over access.
What convinced the judge to side with Amazon
Judge Maxine Chesney said Amazon had presented “strong evidence” that Comet entered users’ password-protected Amazon accounts with the user’s permission but without Amazon’s authorization, pulled private account information in the process, and transmitted that information back to Perplexity’s servers to carry out the requested tasks.
That was enough to get Amazon over the early legal bar. The order says Amazon also put forward “essentially undisputed evidence” that it spent well over $5,000 responding, including employee time spent building tools to block Comet and detect future attempts, and the judge concluded Amazon was likely to succeed on its unauthorized-access claims under both federal and California law.
A ‘bully tactic’?
Amazon argued the risks did not stop at the storefront. CNBC reported that the company warned that Perplexity’s agents posed risks to customer account data and added strain on its ad systems, where automated traffic must be identified before advertisers are billed. Perplexity pushed back hard, calling the lawsuit a “bully tactic.”
Perplexity told the court an injunction could cost it “first-mover advantage in the AI-assisted shopping space,” along with users, market share, reputation, and momentum for Comet, while also threatening its multimillion-dollar investment in the browser.
Limits land before the appeal begins
For now, the order draws a line around what Comet can do on Amazon.
Perplexity is barred from using AI agents to access Amazon’s protected systems and from using, creating, or taking over Amazon accounts for that purpose. The judge also directed the company to destroy Amazon data obtained through that access and to later certify compliance.
Perplexity did not get the broader pause it wanted. Judge Chesney denied a stay pending appeal, but granted a narrower seven-day administrative stay so the company can ask the Ninth Circuit to step in.
That leaves Comet with a brief window to fight the order before the next legal round begins.
Meta started testing an AI shopping tool earlier this month, bringing instant product carousels into its chatbot for some US users.