Amazon has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity AI, demanding the artificial intelligence search startup stop allowing its new AI browser agent, Comet, to make purchases on Amazon for users, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.According to the report, Amazon accused Perplexity of computer fraud and terms-of-service violations, alleging the company’s AI agent failed to disclose when it was making purchases on behalf of users. The e-commerce giant claimed Comet degraded the Amazon shopping experience and created privacy vulnerabilities, the people said, asking not to be named because the matter is private.Perplexity pushed back, accusing Amazon of using its market dominance to “bully a smaller competitor” developing a rival AI shopping agent.The dispute marks one of the first major clashes over how autonomous AI agents should operate online — especially as they begin to handle complex user tasks such as shopping, booking travel, and managing digital workflows. Like OpenAI and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Perplexity has been reimagining the traditional browser to allow users to execute actions directly through AI prompts.Amazon, too, has been developing its own AI-powered shopping assistants.The company recently began public testing of “Buy For Me,” a feature that lets shoppers complete purchases within its app, and “Rufus,” an AI chatbot that helps users browse and add items to their cart.

Why Amazon is upset with Perplexity

“We think it’s fairly straightforward that third-party applications offering to make purchases on behalf of customers should operate openly and respect service provider decisions,” said Lara Hendrickson, an Amazon spokesperson, in a statement to Bloomberg.She added that Perplexity’s Comet agent had “significantly degraded the shopping and customer service experience.”Amazon’s retail terms prohibit “data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools.” According to people familiar with the matter, the company had previously warned Perplexity in November 2024 to stop using AI agents for purchases until an agreement was reached — a directive the startup initially honored.However, Amazon claims that by August 2025, Perplexity’s Comet browser agent resumed shopping on users’ behalf, this time masquerading as a Google Chrome browser. When Amazon blocked the agent, Perplexity allegedly released an updated version designed to circumvent the restriction.

What Perplexity says in its defence vs Amazon

In an interview, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said the company had no intention of disguising its software and dismissed Amazon’s complaint as anti-competitive.The standoff comes as Perplexity — now valued at $20 billion — faces broader scrutiny for its use of online data. The startup has previously been accused by publishers of using content in its AI summaries without permission and of obtaining scraped Reddit data. Perplexity denies wrongdoing, saying it “fights for users’ rights to freely access public knowledge.”Srinivas insisted Comet does not scrape or train on Amazon data, only performing authorized user-directed actions.In a draft blog post reviewed by Bloomberg, Perplexity accused Amazon of trying to “eliminate user rights” to protect its advertising business, which generates billions from product placements in search results.Incidentally, Perplexity is both an Amazon Web Services (AWS) customer and part of Amazon’s ecosystem. The startup has pledged “hundreds of millions” of dollars in commitments to Amazon Web Services, and its CEO has even shared the stage at AWS events.