Ninth Circuit overturns injunction against Perplexity AI's Amazon-shopping assistant

A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel vacated a lower-court order that barred Perplexity AI’s Comet tool from accessing Amazon accounts, finding Amazon unlikely to succeed on its legal claims.

In a 21-page opinion, the Ninth Circuit reversed a preliminary injunction that had restricted Perplexity AI’s Comet browser assistant from interacting with Amazon.com. The panel held that the statute’s “access” requirement was satisfied by the user, not the AI tool, thereby undermining Amazon’s alleged violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act. Judges Milan Smith Jr., Eric Tung, and John Hinderaker found Amazon’s likelihood of success on the merits to be low and noted that the remaining equitable factors did not support an injunction.

The decision emphasized that the ruling applies only to the specific “access” issue and does not create a broader legal framework for agentic AI. Perplexity’s chief communications officer, Jesse Dwyer, said the company will keep defending users’ right to choose AI services, while Amazon has not responded to requests for comment.