Appeals court overturns Amazon Perplexity AI ban

On August 4, 2026, the United States — United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned a preliminary injunction that had barred Perplexity AI from using its AI-powered agentic shopping tools on Amazon (company)'s platform. The appeals court ruled that Amazon was unlikely to succeed on its claim that Perplexity's AI agents violated the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, finding that it was Perplexity's users, not Perplexity itself, who accessed Amazon's platform. This is the first federal appeals court decision addressing whether AI agents acting on behalf of users can legally access online platforms, with broad implications for the agentic AI industry. Amazon had sued Perplexity in November 2025, alleging unauthorized access to customer accounts via its Comet browser. A lower court had granted the injunction in March 2026. Amazon stated it disagrees with the decision and is evaluating next steps, while Perplexity's spokesperson Jesse Dwyer welcomed the ruling.