Ninth Circuit vacates Amazon injunction in Perplexity AI agent case

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has vacated a preliminary injunction in the legal dispute between Amazon and Perplexity. The case centers on whether Perplexity’s Comet Assistant, an AI shopping agent, violates federal and California anti-hacking laws when it accesses Amazon systems on behalf of a user.

The court ruled that a user who authorizes an AI agent to perform shopping tasks is the party accessing the store under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and California’s CDAFA. This decision addresses the legal authority of AI agents acting on behalf of human users when platforms attempt to restrict such access.

The litigation highlights emerging challenges in eDiscovery and information governance. As AI agents orchestrate increasing volumes of retail transactions, legal and security teams face complexities regarding the ownership and preservation of agent-assisted conduct, such as prompts, session histories, and action traces, which may be split between user devices and third-party operators.