Amazon Takes Legal Action Against Perplexity Over AI Shopping Tool
Amazon has threatened Perplexity with legal action after its shopping tool was accused of computer fraud. On Tuesday, the startup's Comet AI was accused of violating Amazon's ban on robot and data gathering.
Amazon had previously warned Perplexity about using the tool on its shopping site. In the claim, Amazon accused Perplexity of misconduct against its company's terms of service, alleging that its agentic browser, Comet AI, was being used to access customer accounts and make automated purchases on behalf of customers without Amazon's knowledge.
The accusation also claims that Perplexity has damaged Amazon's customer experience by pretending to be a human consumer and accessing restricted sections of its website, threatening the trust and privacy of customers.
In a statement on Tuesday, an Amazon spokesperson addressed the claims:
"We've repeatedly requested that Perplexity remove Amazon from the Comet experience, particularly in light of the significantly degraded shopping and customer service experience it provides.
This helps ensure a positive customer experience and it is how others operate, including food delivery apps and the restaurants they take orders for, delivery service apps and the stores they shop from, and online travel agencies and the airlines they book tickets with for customers.
Agentic third-party applications such as Perplexity's Comet have the same obligations."
Amazon had previously demanded that Perplexity stop using its shopping tool bots on its platform in November 2024; however, it later accused the company of breaching this request in August 2025.
Perplexity's Response: "Bullying is Not Innovation"
In response to the allegations, Perplexity published an article on Tuesday titled 'Bullying is Not Innovation'.
Within the article, the company responds to the claims made against them, saying they have felt 'bullied' by Amazon's attempts to block Comet AI.
A spokesperson for Perplexity said:
"This week, Perplexity received an aggressive legal threat from Amazon, demanding we prohibit Comet users from using their AI assistants on Amazon.
This isn't a reasonable legal position; it's a bully tactic to scare disruptive companies like Perplexity out of making life better for people."
Interestingly, Sirte Pihlaja, the CEO of CX design agency Shirute, compared Amazon's recently launched Buy for Me feature to Perplexity's Pro Shopping Assistant.
Although this is not directly linked to the current legal battle, it does point to Amazon encroaching on Perplexity's area of expertise and looking to cut out third-party shopping tools from its customer journey.
Other Companies Have Also Raised Concerns
However, Amazon does not appear to be the only company that has an issue with Perplexity.
Indeed, the company has been cautioned against similar claims made by other businesses in recent months.
In August, cloud service provider Cloudflare accused Perplexity of intentionally disguising its bots as Google Chrome browser's and avoiding detection to access sites without permission repeatedly after being asked to stop, resulting in Perplexity being removed from the company's list of verified bots.
In October, Reddit sued several firms, including Perplexity, of dodging anti-scraping safeguards and stealing customer data, with Perplexity rebutting the claim suggesting it was a threat to 'public interest'.
What This Means for the Wider CX Space
The dispute between Amazon and Perplexity underscores a growing tension at the intersection of AI innovation, customer experience, and digital ethics.
As agentic AI tools like Comet become more capable of acting autonomously on behalf of users, brands are being forced to reconsider the boundaries of their customer ecosystems and who truly "owns" the customer relationship.
For the CX industry, this clash highlights an inflection point.
On one hand, AI-driven shopping assistants promise hyper-personalized, frictionless experiences, which can provide consumers with convenience and control. On the other, they raise serious concerns about trust, transparency, and brand integrity.
If platforms continue to restrict third-party AI integrations, CX innovation risks becoming siloed, limiting customers' ability to curate the experiences they want.
Conversely, allowing open access without guardrails could erode trust and compromise data security. The challenge for CX leaders, then, is to strike a balance: enabling AI-led personalization while maintaining accountability, compliance, and ethical clarity.
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