Judge grants Amazon preliminary injunction against Perplexity's Comet shopping agent on March 9, 2026, finding Amazon likely to succeed under CFAA and California computer-access law theories.

On March 9, 2026, Judge Chesney granted a preliminary injunction in Amazon v. Perplexity after Amazon challenged Perplexity's Comet browser and shopping agent—a tool that allows software to shop for users on Amazon through their logged-in accounts. Amazon had sent a cease-and-desist letter, which Comet did not stop.

Comet is an agentic AI agent (AI that takes a loose goal, breaks it into steps, uses tools, gathers information, makes decisions, and returns with the task done). The court's analysis focused on whether Amazon could revoke authorization and prevent Perplexity's agents from accessing Amazon's systems through user accounts, but made zero effort to analyze whether an AI agent delegated by a user should be treated differently under agency-law concepts or whether user autonomy creates a distinct authorization interest.

The opinion's reasoning—that the platform says it is not allowed therefore it is not allowed—raises concerns about the CFAA becoming a platform-control statute for agentic AI. Perplexity argued that an injunction would disserve the public interest in consumer choice and innovation, but the court's response focused only on the public interest in preventing unauthorized computer access.