Direct clash in the AI shopping agent boom: Amazon accuses Perplexity of violations and demands a halt

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Amazon has sent Perplexity a “cease-and-desist” letter, demanding that the latter stop allowing its AI browser agent, Comet, to shop online on behalf of users.

According to media reports citing informed sources, Amazon accuses Perplexity of computer fraud because it did not provide clear disclosure when acting as a user’s shopping agent, violating Amazon’s terms of service. Amazon also claims that Perplexity’s tool undermines Amazon’s shopping experience and poses privacy risks.

Perplexity responded in a blog post, stating that Amazon is using its own competing products to suppress smaller rivals, and argued that users should have the right to choose their preferred AI shopping agent. “This is an intimidation tactic intended to scare off innovative companies like Perplexity that are working to improve users' lives.”

Analysts point out that the dispute between Amazon and Perplexity highlights an impending debate: how to deal with the rise of so-called AI agents that can perform increasingly complex online tasks (including shopping) for users. Like OpenAI and Google, Perplexity is promoting a redesign of the traditional browser around AI, hoping it can simplify more operations for users, such as writing emails and conducting research.

Amazon is also developing its own AI agents, including those with shopping capabilities. In April this year, Amazon launched a feature still in public testing called “Buy For Me,” which allows users to buy directly from brand websites within the Amazon Shopping app. Another AI assistant named Rufus can browse the Amazon website, recommend products to users, and add them to the cart.

For now, most experiments on how AI agents interact with the web are still being led by startups like Perplexity.

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said in an interview:

We have actually drawn a lot of inspiration from Amazon. But I don’t believe it’s customer-centric to only allow users to use their own assistant (which may not even be the best shopping assistant).

The terms of use for Amazon’s retail website prohibit “any form of data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools.” According to informed sources, in November 2024, Amazon asked Perplexity not to deploy AI agents able to shop on the Amazon platform before consensus was reached between both parties. At that time, Perplexity complied with the request.

But the lawyer’s letter claims that by August this year, Perplexity began using its newly launched Comet browser agent to log in to users’ Amazon accounts. This time, Perplexity disguised these agents as Google Chrome browser users. After Perplexity refused to stop using these bots, Amazon tried to intercept them, but Perplexity then released a new version of Comet to bypass these security measures.

Amazon spokesperson Lara Hendrickson stated in an email:

We view this issue as very clear: If a third-party app is going to make purchases on behalf of users with other businesses, it must be open and transparent, and respect whether service providers want to participate. Other companies, such as food delivery and online travel services, operate the same way.

Third-party agent apps like Perplexity’s Comet have the same obligation. We have repeatedly asked Perplexity to remove Amazon from the Comet experience, especially when it significantly worsens the shopping experience and customer service.

Regarding Amazon’s accusation of “disguised agents,” Srinivas said he believes there is no need for distinction between users and their authorized agents. He thinks agents should have “equal rights and responsibilities” as real users. “This is not something Amazon should control.”

Over the past 18 months, Perplexity has been accused by publishers of using content in its AI news summaries without permission and of buying illegally scraped data from Reddit. Perplexity has previously said it “actively defends users’ rights to access public knowledge freely and fairly.”

Srinivas stated that the Comet browser agent does not train on or scrape any information from Amazon, but merely conducts purchases with user authorization. In its blog response to the lawyer’s letter, Perplexity also accused Amazon of trying to “deprive users of their rights” to sell more ads. Shopping agents might pose a future threat to Amazon’s highly profitable advertising business—which primarily makes money by giving products prominent placement in search results. If robots shop on behalf of users, the value of such advertising may decline.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on last week’s earnings call that the current user experience for AI shopping agents is “not good enough,” due to a lack of personalization, lack of knowledge of user shopping history, and incorrect estimates on delivery times and pricing. “But I believe we’ll ultimately find a way to cooperate. The company is having conversations with third-party agent developers.”

Perplexity is also a customer of Amazon Web Services (AWS). Srinivas noted that the company has made a “hundreds of millions of dollars” usage commitment to AWS. At its 2023 annual conference, AWS brought Srinivas on stage and has frequently promoted Perplexity as one of the AI startups built on Amazon’s digital infrastructure.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is also an investor in Perplexity. Perplexity is currently valued at about $20 billion.

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