Perplexity overturns Amazon injunction on AI shopping bot

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on August 4, 2026 lifted an injunction that had blocked Perplexity’s AI shopping tool from accessing Amazon’s website. Perplexity’s Comet browser can now resume agentic shopping features that had been barred since March 2026, when Amazon obtained a temporary injunction after filing a lawsuit.

The appeals court found that Amazon’s claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) were unlikely to succeed because Comet acts at the direction of individual users—meaning the users, not Perplexity, access Amazon’s servers. The court also noted that an injunction against conduct probably not violating the CFAA or California’s Computer Data Access and Fraud Act would not serve the public interest.

Amazon had sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter in November 2025, alleging that Perplexity broke a 2024 agreement to pause agentic shopping by disguising Comet’s bot as a normal Chrome browser. The company then sued in March 2026 and quickly secured the temporary injunction.

In a statement to Engadget on August 4, 2026, Amazon said, “We respectfully disagree with today’s decision on the preliminary injunction. We remain confident in our case and are evaluating our next steps.”

The appeals court’s ruling does not end the litigation, which continues in federal court in San Francisco. Amazon may request a rehearing or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.