The Perplexity AI assistant app on a smartphone arranged in Riga, Latvia, on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. AI startup Perplexity made a formal offer to acquire Google\u2019s Chrome browser for $34.5 billion, an audacious bid to get ahead of a potential requirement for the search giant to sell the web browser in US antitrust proceedings. <\/p>\n
(Bloomberg) — Amazon.com Inc. has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity AI Inc. demanding that the artificial intelligence search startup stop allowing its AI browser agent, Comet, to make purchases online for users.<\/p>\n
The e-commerce giant is accusing Perplexity of committing computer fraud by failing to disclose when its AI agent is shopping on a user\u2019s behalf, in violation of Amazon\u2019s terms of service, according to people familiar with the letter sent on Friday. The document also said Perplexity\u2019s tool degraded the Amazon shopping experience and introduced privacy vulnerabilities, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.<\/p>\n
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In a blog post, Perplexity said Amazon is bullying a smaller competitor with a rival AI agent shopping product and argued that users should have a choice to choose their preferred agent to make purchases on Amazon. \u201cIt\u2019s a bully tactic to scare disruptive companies like Perplexity out of making life better for people,\u201d the startup wrote.<\/p>\n
The clash between Amazon and Perplexity offers an early glimpse into a looming debate over how to handle the proliferation of so-called AI agents that field more complex tasks online for users, including shopping. Like OpenAI and Alphabet Inc.\u2019s Google, Perplexity has pushed to rethink the traditional web browser around AI, with the goal of having it streamline more actions for users, such as drafting emails and conducting research.<\/p>\n
Amazon is also developing its own AI agents, including some capable of shopping. In April, it introduced a feature \u2013 still in public testing \u2013 called Buy For Me, which is designed to let shoppers buy from brand sites within the Amazon shopping app. Another AI assistant, called Rufus, can browse Amazon\u2019s site, recommend products to shoppers and put them in a cart. But much of the experimentation in how agents might interact with the web has been carried out by startups like Perplexity, now valued at $20 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmazon\u2019s a company that we\u2019ve actually taken a lot of inspiration from,\u201d Perplexity Chief Executive Officer Aravind Srinivas said in an interview. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think it\u2019s customer centric to force people to use only their assistant, which may not even be the best shopping assistant.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Amazon retail site\u2019s conditions of use prohibit \u201cany use of data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools.\u201d In November 2024, Amazon asked Perplexity to stop deploying AI agents capable of purchasing products on the site until the two companies came to an agreement on the practice, the people said. The startup complied.<\/p>\n
But by this August, Perplexity started using its new Comet browser agent, which had logged into their user\u2019s Amazon accounts, the letter said. This time, Perplexity identified the agents as a Google Chrome browser user, Amazon said in the letter. When Perplexity refused to stop its bots, Amazon sought to block them, but Perplexity released a new version of Comet to get around the security measure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think it\u2019s fairly straightforward that third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses should operate openly and respect service provider decisions whether or not to participate,\u201d Lara Hendrickson, an Amazon spokesperson, said in an emailed statement. She added that other companies, including food delivery services and online travel agencies, operate in the same way.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgentic third-party applications such as Perplexity\u2019s Comet have the same obligations, and we\u2019ve repeatedly requested that Perplexity remove Amazon from the Comet experience, particularly in light of the significantly degraded shopping and customer service experience it provides,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In response to Amazon\u2019s accusation that Perplexity was disguising its agents, Srinivas said he sees no need to distinguish a user from an agent that someone deputizes on their behalf. Srinivas argued that agents should have \u201call the same rights and responsibilities\u201d as a real human user. \u201cIt\u2019s not Amazon\u2019s job to survey that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Over the past 18 months, Perplexity has been accused by publishers of using their content in AI news summaries without permission and of buying data that had been illegally scraped from Reddit\u2019s discussion sites. Perplexity previously said it \u201cwill always fight vigorously for users\u2019 rights to freely and fairly access public knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Srinivas said Perplexity\u2019s Comet browser is not training or scraping any information from Amazon with its Comet agent, only taking actions required to make purchases at a user\u2019s bidding. Perplexity, in a blog post responding to the cease-and-desist letter, also accused Amazon of trying to \u201celiminate user rights\u201d in order to sell more ads.<\/p>\n
Shopping agents may one day pose a significant threat to Amazon\u2019s lucrative advertising business, which makes most of its money by selling prominent placement on its web store in response to shoppers\u2019 product search queries. If bots shop for customers, the advertising placement potentially loses its value.<\/p>\n
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on an earnings call last week that the customer experience for AI shopping agents was \u201cnot good,\u201d citing a lack of personalization and user-specific shopping history, and bungled delivery estimates and pricing.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I do think we will find ways to partner,\u201d he said, adding that Amazon was having \u201cconversations\u201d with builders of third-party agents.<\/p>\n
Perplexity is a customer of Amazon\u2019s cloud unit. Srinivas said his company has made \u201chundreds of millions\u201d in commitments to Amazon Web Services. AWS also brought Srinivas on stage at its annual trade show in 2023 and has repeatedly touted the startup as one of the AI outfits that built their businesses in part on Amazon\u2019s digital infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has also invested in Perplexity.<\/p>\n
–With assistance from Spencer Soper.<\/p>\n
(Story updated with comments from blog post in third paragraph.)<\/p>\n
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