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Amazon Orders Perplexity to Pull Comet Shopping Agent From Its Marketplace

The confrontation tests whether AI assistants must identify themselves when transacting on e-commerce platforms.

Overview

  • Both companies confirmed Amazon sent a cease-and-desist demanding Comet stop making purchases on behalf of users on Amazon’s site.
  • Amazon says third-party agents must operate transparently, identify themselves, and respect a platform’s decision on participation, citing degraded customer experience and security risks.
  • Perplexity rejected the allegations as anti-competitive, arguing Comet acts solely at a user’s direction with credentials stored locally and framing the issue as user choice in assistants.
  • Amazon alleges Comet disguised automated access as a Chrome browser and that Perplexity updated the tool to bypass blocks after prior warnings dating to November 2024 and renewed activity by August 2025.
  • Some outlets reported a federal lawsuit filing against Perplexity, a claim not broadly corroborated, as the dispute becomes an early test case for rules governing agentic browsers and online commerce.