Amazon Blocks Perplexity AI from Making Purchases

A cease-and-desist letter was delivered by Amazon.com Inc. to Perplexity AI Inc., requesting that the AI search firm stop enabling its AI browser agent, Comet, to conduct online transactions on behalf of consumers.

People familiar with the letter received on Friday say the e-commerce behemoth is accusing Perplexity of violating Amazon’s terms of service by neglecting to disclose when its AI agent is purchasing on a user’s behalf, so committing computer fraud. Those who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal issues claimed that Perplexity’s product also created privacy flaws and negatively impacted the Amazon purchasing experience.

Amazon is bullying a smaller competitor with a competing AI agent shopping platform, according to a blog post by Perplexity, which also stated that customers should be able to select the agent of their choice while making purchases on Amazon. The startup claimed that it was using a bully strategy to deter disruptive businesses like Perplexity from improving people’s lives.

The conflict between Perplexity and Amazon provides a preview of the impending discussion over how to manage the spread of so-called AI agents that do more difficult online jobs for consumers, such as shopping. Similar to OpenAI and Google, a division of Alphabet Inc., Perplexity has advocated for a rethinking of the conventional web browser in light of AI in order to make it easier for users to perform tasks like research and email writing.

Amazon is also working on creating its own AI bots, some of which will be able to shop. It debuted Buy For Me, a tool that allows customers to purchase from brand websites within the Amazon shopping app, in April. The feature is currently undergoing public testing. Rufus is another artificial intelligence assistant that can browse Amazon, suggest items to customers, and add them to a cart. Startups like Perplexity, which is currently valued at $20 billion, have conducted a large portion of the testing about how agents might interact with the web.

During an interview, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas stated, “Amazon is a company that we’ve actually taken a lot of inspiration from.” However, I don’t believe that making consumers use their assistant exclusively—who might not even be the greatest shopping assistant—is customer-centric.

The terms of use for the Amazon retail website forbid “any use of data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools.” Perplexity was requested by Amazon in November 2024 to cease using AI agents that could make purchases on the website until the two businesses agreed on the practice, according to the people. The startup obeyed.

However, the letter stated that Perplexity had begun utilising its new Comet browser agent by August of this year, which had logged into their users’ Amazon accounts. Amazon stated in the letter that Perplexity this time recognised the agents as Google Chrome browser users. Perplexity created a new version of Comet to circumvent the security precaution when Amazon attempted to block its bots for refusing to stop them.

Amazon spokesperson Lara Hendrickson said in an emailed statement, “We believe it’s fairly straightforward that third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses should operate openly and respect service provider decisions whether or not to participate.” The same is true for other businesses, she said, such as online travel firms and food delivery services.

We have frequently asked Perplexity to remove Amazon from the Comet experience, especially given the notably worsened shopping and customer service experience it offers, she added. “Agentic third-party applications like Perplexity’s Comet have the same obligations,” she added.

In reaction to Amazon’s claim that Perplexity was masquerading as its agents, Srinivas stated that he doesn’t think it’s necessary to differentiate between a user and an agent who is acting on their behalf. In contrast to actual human users, Srinivas maintained that agents ought to have “all the same rights and responsibilities.” “That’s not Amazon’s responsibility to survey,” he stated.

Publishers have accused Perplexity of purchasing data that had been unlawfully scraped from Reddit’s discussion forums and exploiting their content in AI news summaries without their consent during the last 18 months. It was previously stated by Perplexity that it “will always fight vigorously for users’ rights to freely and fairly access public knowledge.”

Perplexity’s Comet browser, according to Srinivas, only performs the necessary activities to complete transactions at a user’s request; it does not train or scrape any information from Amazon using its Comet agent. In a blog post replying to the cease-and-desist letter, Perplexity also charged that Amazon was attempting to “eliminate user rights” in order to increase ad revenue.

A major threat to Amazon’s profitable advertising business, which generates the majority of its revenue by selling prominent placement on its website in response to customers’ product search queries, could come from shopping agents. The advertisement placement may lose value if bots shop for customers.

The customer experience for AI shopping agents was described as “not good” by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy during an earnings call last week. He cited a lack of personalisation and user-specific buying history, as well as inaccurate delivery estimates and pricing.

Adding that Amazon was in “talks” with third-party agent builders, he stated, “But I do think we will find ways to combine.”

Perplexity is a client of the cloud division of Amazon. Srinivas said that his business has committed “hundreds of millions” to Amazon Web Services. During its annual trade event in 2023, AWS also featured Srinivas on stage. The company has frequently praised the firm as one of the AI companies that based their operations in part on Amazon’s digital infrastructure.