According to Silicon Republic, Amazon filed a lawsuit against Perplexity on November 4th in San Francisco federal court, demanding the AI company stop its Comet agents from making purchases on Amazon’s site. The retail giant accuses Perplexity of committing “computer fraud” by failing to disclose when Comet is shopping on behalf of real users, which allegedly violates Amazon’s terms of service prohibiting “any use of data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools.” Perplexity spokesperson Beejoli Shah fired back, calling Amazon a “bully” and arguing that AI assistants should be treated like any other user. This legal showdown comes just after PayPal struck a deal with OpenAI to enable instant payments within ChatGPT, highlighting the growing momentum behind agentic shopping technology.
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Amazon‘s ad revenue problem
Here’s the thing that makes this lawsuit so strategic for Amazon. The company makes billions from advertising revenue generated by promoted products on its own site. If AI agents start doing our shopping for us, they could completely bypass Amazon’s carefully crafted shopping experience. Think about it – why would an AI assistant scroll through sponsored listings when it can just find the best price and buy instantly? Amazon’s entire business model depends on controlling the shopping journey, and AI agents threaten to turn their marketplace into just another backend supplier.
The philosophical battle
This isn’t just about legal technicalities – it’s a fundamental disagreement about what AI agents actually are. Perplexity argues in their blog post that user agents are “exactly that: agents of the user” with exactly the same permissions humans have. Amazon sees them as “robots” and “data gathering tools” that violate their terms. Both sides have a point, honestly. When your AI assistant shops for you, is it really any different than you clicking “buy” yourself? Or does the automated nature change everything?
Bigger than just these two
This lawsuit is basically the opening shot in what’s going to be a massive battle between retailers and AI companies. We’re talking about the future of how we shop online. If Amazon wins, it could set a precedent that lets retailers block AI agents from their platforms. But if Perplexity prevails, we might see a world where our AI assistants comparison-shop across multiple sites instantly, completely changing how e-commerce works. Either way, the stakes are enormous for both the retail and AI industries.
What’s next
Look, this case is going to be messy. Both sides have legitimate arguments, and there’s very little legal precedent for AI agents acting on behalf of users. The court’s decision could either accelerate the agentic AI revolution or put serious brakes on it. And honestly? This is probably just the first of many such lawsuits we’ll see as AI becomes more integrated into our daily lives. The question isn’t whether AI will change shopping – it’s who gets to control that change.
