As AI assistants increasingly shop, search, and complete more tasks online for users, a legal heavyweight match between Amazon and Perplexity could help determine whether website owners can block those tools from accessing password-protected parts of their platforms. The matter isn’t settled yet, but agentic AI firms are likely doing whatever passes for giving high-fives to their bots after the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated a preliminary injunction against Perplexity’s use of its AI assistant on Amazon.com on August 4, 2026.
Amazon, which obtained the preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, recently filed a petition for a rehearing en banc from the full Ninth Circuit on August 18.
While the Ninth Circuit’s recent ruling is narrow in scope, the overall case (however it ends up) may affect several aspects of online commerce. The ripple effect could go far beyond the tiff between Amazon and Perplexity, influencing shoppers, AI tool developers, and businesses both large and small that maintain online presences and platforms.
Helpful Assistant or a Violation of Federal Law?
The question in Amazon.com Services, LLC v. Perplexity AI, Inc, is whether Perplexity’s deployment of its AI agent amounted to unauthorized access to password-protected portions of Amazon’s site. Was this unauthorized access under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and California’s Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (CDAFA)? Or was it simply an AI agent helping a shopper do their own shopping on Amazon?
Perplexity.AI bills Comet as “the browser that works for you,” using its search engine as a “personal assistant.” This includes creating prompts to act as AI-powered shortcuts for news aggregation, tackling tasks, and, relevant to this ruling, shopping. When users engage Comet’s AI assistant on a commerce platform, it can search for a product, compare prices, and find deals. That includes Amazon. With annual revenue above $700 billion, Amazon’s platform is an internet shopping destination for more than 300 million customers, so both companies could have a lot at stake.
Amazon said it barred Perplexity’s assistant from the Amazon store out of security concerns for its password-protected customer accounts, filing suit after Perplexity ignored a cease-and-desist letter. Perplexity argued that Amazon is more concerned about its shoppers’ reduced exposure to advertising than security, although Amazon disputed this characterization and said it was concerned the assistant would lead to a “degraded shopping experience.”
District Court Issued Preliminary Injunction
The district court found Amazon likely to succeed on its CFAA and CDAFA claims, reasoning that Perplexity, through Comet, accessed users’ password-protected accounts with the users’ permission but without Amazon’s authorization. The court also found that Amazon had shown a likelihood of irreparable harm.
On appeal, Perplexity argued that its AI assistant did not access Amazon’s computers. According to the Ninth Circuit panel, the Assistant takes screenshots of the browser view and sends them from the user’s computer to Perplexity’s servers for analysis of the requested information, then sends instructions, such as navigation, back to the user’s browser. The panel concluded that the user, not Perplexity, accessed Amazon’s computers with the Assistant’s help. Because Amazon was unlikely to establish the required “access” element under the CFAA or CDAFA, the panel vacated the preliminary injunction and sent the case back to the district court.
A Case to Watch
For shoppers, developers, and online businesses, the stakes are substantial. The case could affect how AI assistants are designed, whether websites can use computer-access laws to block agents from password-protected areas, and who bears responsibility when a user directs an AI tool to act online. Still, the court stressed that its holding is narrow: it addressed the facts surrounding Comet and Amazon, not every potential claim or liability question involving agentic AI.
