Amazon has just lost an important battle against Perplexity. On August 4, 2026, a US appeals court overturned the ban on Perplexity’s AI assistant on Amazon. A decision that could redefine the place of AI in global online commerce!
In brief
- The 9th Circuit on August 4 vacated the injunction against Perplexity’s AI.
- The judges find that the user, not Perplexity, “accesses” Amazon’s servers.
- This decision constitutes an important first for AI agents capable of acting on the Web.
- Amazon, however, retains other legal means and the trial is not over.
American justice gives the advantage to Perplexity’s AI: here’s why
There legal debacle between Amazon and Perplexity dates back to November 2025. The online commerce giant accused it in particular of unauthorized access to its customers’ accounts and of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). This is a US federal law against computer hacking.
In March 2026, California judge Maxine Chesney agrees with Amazon by granting it an injunction. This first judgment evoked solid elements in favor of a possible violation. She believed Perplexity was accessing password-protected accounts without authorization.
August 4, 2026, turnaround! The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal overturns Judge Chesney’s decision by applying the rule of strict interpretation, favorable to the accused in cases of doubt about a criminal law. Federal judges thus recognize that there is little case law on the liability of autonomous agents driven by artificial intelligence.
And not only that! According to them, Amazon also failed to prove that Perplexity had violated the CFAA. They believe that it is the users themselves (and not Perplexity’s AI) who access Amazon’s servers when they use the Comet browser.
This decision marks a decisive turning point for the future of AI agents in online commerce
The standoff between Amazon and Perplexity illustrates a broader tension between e-commerce platforms and new AI tools capable of acting autonomously on the web (in particular via AI assistantsconversational). Moreover, analysts agree on one point: the recent decision of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit goes beyond the Perplexity case alone.
She actually sketches a legal framework for all agentic AI developers. But above all, the federal judges’ interpretation makes it possible to clearly distinguish an autonomous AI agent from a malicious hacker.
The verdict explicitly cites the rule of clarity: the CFAA remains above all a criminal text. Extending it to a legitimate AI agent would therefore criminalize everyday behavior. Which is absurd! Decryption: an Internet user using Comet does not become an accomplice to piracy. A legal nuance which can only protect the digital ecosystem from authoritarian excesses.
Note that Comet AI allows Amazon users to browse, connect and make purchases via their own identifiers. These are stored locally.
Despite this victory, the Amazon VS Perplexity affair is far from closed
THE case returns to district court. Amazon’s trademark and California law claims remain valid there. In this context, an Amazon spokesperson indicated that the company was studying the possibility of taking the case to the Supreme Court.
The court of appeal also specifies that its decision only concerns the preliminary injunction as well as the notion of access within the meaning of the CFAA. Other courts of appeal could therefore adopt a different reasoning. The modification of the law by the American Congress is also not an option to be ruled out in order to better regulate AI algorithms.
Even the DeFi sector is watching this issue closely. The fact is that AI agents are starting to execute orders on crypto exchanges and manage digital wallets on behalf of users. Which makes the question of the responsibility of these artificial intelligence systems particularly important.
One thing is certain: Perplexity has just won a round that can only count in the history of agentic AI. Above all, this judgment marks a step in the regulation of artificial intelligence applied to commerce. Enough to outline the contours of a future where the AI agent will be omnipresent.
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