The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals just handed Perplexity AI a major win, overturning a lower court injunction that had blocked the company’s Comet AI shopping agent from operating on Amazon. The ruling, issued on August 4, represents one of the most consequential legal decisions yet on the question of whether AI agents can act on behalf of users without violating computer fraud laws.
The court concluded that when Perplexity’s Comet AI browses Amazon and makes purchases, it’s the human user doing the accessing, not the AI company. That distinction fundamentally redefines the legal relationship between autonomous software agents and the platforms they interact with.
What the court actually said
The dispute traces back to November 2025, when Amazon filed suit against Perplexity AI over its Comet shopping agent. Amazon’s argument was straightforward: Perplexity’s bot was accessing Amazon’s platform in ways that violated both the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and Amazon’s terms of service.
A district court initially sided with Amazon, issuing a preliminary injunction in March 2026 that shut down Comet’s Amazon operations. That lower court had found what it called “strong evidence” of unauthorized access, particularly after Amazon had sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter.
