Amazon has directed Perplexity AI to withdraw its autonomous shopping browser agent, Comet, from its online marketplace, escalating tensions between traditional e-commerce and artificial intelligence technologies. Perplexity’s removal comes after ongoing warnings from Amazon, which claims the AI startup repeatedly violated its seller platform’s terms of service. Both companies acknowledged the decision, highlighting the growing friction between big tech giants like Amazon and emerging AI-powered shopping or retail solutions.
Amazon’s Legal Action Against Perplexity’s AI Bot
Amazon stated that Perplexity’s AI shopping assistant failed to clearly identify itself as an automated agent when navigating and making purchases on the Amazon store. According to Amazon, such transparency is standard for other popular third-party services—food delivery apps, delivery service platforms, and online travel agencies. The tech giant insists that AI bots or automated shopping tools acting on behalf of online shoppers should always disclose their identity to maintain platform trust and compliance.
Amazon hinted at a simple solution: Perplexity must fully disclose its bot’s identity when representing users. However, Amazon also suggested it retains the power to block these automated shopping assistants entirely if they do not follow established e-commerce and AI marketplace rules.
Perplexity’s Perspective: AI Innovation Versus Market Control
Perplexity responded to Amazon’s legal threat in a blog post titled “Bullying is not innovation”. The startup claims Amazon is using its market dominance and aggressive tactics to suppress technology innovation and competition in automated online shopping tools. Perplexity argues that autonomous bots like Comet threaten Amazon’s ad revenue and sponsored product placement, since these agents bypass traditional upselling strategies, cross-promotions, and algorithmic recommendations. For example, if a user asks the bot to buy a laundry basket, the bot selects the best option directly, ignoring Amazon’s promotional content.
Previous Controversies: Data Scraping and Website Compliance
Perplexity has faced criticism before regarding its use of public web data for AI training and shopping automation. Earlier in the year, Cloudflare accused Perplexity of scraping websites that had opted out of AI data collection. While Perplexity supporters claim their technology only accesses publicly-available web content to fulfill user requests—similar to a human using a browser—critics note that Perplexity sometimes obscures its identity while gathering data online.
