Amazon, opens new tab sued Perplexity AI on Tuesday over the startup’s "agentic" shopping feature, which uses automation to place orders for users, saying it covertly accessed Amazon customer accounts and disguised automated activity as human browsing.
The clash highlights an emerging debate over regulation of the growing use of AI agents and their interaction with websites, aiming to make them more autonomous and capable of handling everyday online tasks.

Perplexity, which has grown rapidly amid the boom in AI assistants, has previously rejected the U.S. shopping giant's claims, saying it was using its market dominance to stifle competition.
The startup did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Amazon's lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the northern district of California.

AMAZON WANTS PERPLEXITY TO END 'MISCONDUCT'

In the suit, Amazon accused Perplexity of covertly accessing private Amazon customer accounts through its Comet browser and associated AI agent, and of disguising automated activity as human browsing.

Perplexity’s system posed security risks to customer data, Amazon added, and the startup had ignored repeated requests to stop.