Overview
- A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel vacated and stayed a March preliminary injunction on Aug. 4, 2026, allowing Perplexity’s Comet shopping assistant to operate on Amazon while the lawsuit continues.
- The court found, on the current record, that Amazon’s customers using Perplexity’s browser — not Perplexity itself — accessed Amazon’s systems, so Amazon is unlikely to succeed on its Computer Fraud and Abuse Act claims.
- Judges relied on the technical record showing credentials and page data first go to the user’s device and that Perplexity receives screenshots and sends navigation instructions, which the court said does not equal Perplexity ‘accessing’ Amazon.
- The opinion is narrowly framed to the facts before the panel and does not resolve other legal theories or block Amazon from pursuing contract claims, state-law claims, rehearing en banc, or Supreme Court review.
- The decision is an early appellate guidepost for agentic AI that lowers immediate CFAA risk for tool makers and users but leaves open platform control, security concerns, and industry debate about how such agents should be governed.