Amazon has issued a legal threat to Perplexity, demanding that the AI search startup remove its agentic browser, Comet, from operating on Amazon’s online store. The dispute centers on Perplexity’s alleged violation of Amazon’s terms of service, which require third-party agents to identify themselves when interacting with the platform.
According to Perplexity, Amazon sent a cease-and-desist letter after “multiple warnings” over Comet’s behavior. The company disclosed the exchange in a blog post titled “Bullying is not innovation,” calling Amazon’s action “an aggressive legal threat” and “a danger to all internet users.”
Amazon’s position is that Comet, Perplexity’s AI-powered shopping assistant, is operating covertly and must identify itself as an automated agent when accessing Amazon’s services. The company pointed out that other third-party systems—such as food delivery apps, travel agencies, and online retailers—already identify themselves while acting on behalf of users. “We think it’s fairly straightforward that third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses should operate openly,” Amazon said in a statement, adding that service providers have the right to decide whether to allow such participation.
Perplexity, meanwhile, argues that its AI agent inherits the same permissions as the user, since it acts only on direct user instructions. The startup maintains that Comet’s activity is equivalent to a human using a browser and therefore does not need to self-identify.
The conflict highlights broader questions about how AI-driven agents should interact with online platforms. Amazon’s enforcement could set a precedent for how agentic applications are treated, particularly as the company develops its own AI shopping assistant, Rufus, which could compete directly with Comet.
Perplexity claims Amazon’s real motive is protecting its advertising and product placement revenue, arguing that bots shopping on behalf of users are less susceptible to marketing tactics. “A bot tasked with buying a laundry basket wouldn’t get upsold into buying a more expensive one,” the company noted in its post.
The dispute comes months after Perplexity faced scrutiny from Cloudflare, which accused the company of scraping websites that had opted out of AI crawling. In that case, Cloudflare found that Perplexity’s AI accessed websites in response to user queries, leading to debate over whether that behavior constituted legitimate browsing or evasion of site restrictions.
As TechCrunch previously reported, such disputes foreshadow tensions in the coming “agentic web,” where automated assistants handle shopping, travel, and other online tasks on behalf of humans. Amazon’s stance signals that major platforms may demand transparency from AI agents — and retain the right to block them entirely.
Featured image credits: Kimberly White via Getty Images
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