Permission from the user was not authorization from Amazon
District Judge Maxine Chesney of the federal court in San Francisco granted Amazon a temporary injunction against Perplexity's Comet browser on Monday, March 9, 2026, and the order was reported the next day. Her order turned on a single distinction: "Perplexity, through its Comet browser, accesses with the Amazon user's permission but without authorization by Amazon, the user's password-protected account." [1][2]
The dispute traces back to a cease and desist letter Amazon sent Perplexity in November 2025, arguing that letting Comet's agent complete purchases on a shopper's behalf violated Amazon's terms of service. Amazon sued, and the March order is a preliminary step in that case rather than a final ruling on the merits. [1]
Atlas interpretation: The order does not question that the shopper wanted Comet to buy things for them. It holds that a shopper's own consent cannot substitute for the retailer's, when what is being accessed is the retailer's account system rather than the shopper's own property. That is the part other agentic commerce products now have to read carefully: a user clicking allow inside their own browser does not settle whether the site on the other end has to let the agent in. [1]
A one week window, then a shutoff and a data purge
The order is stayed for seven days to give Perplexity time to ask the Ninth Circuit to put it on hold. If that fails, Comet's agent must stop reaching password-protected parts of Amazon accounts and Perplexity must delete every copy of Amazon account data it had already collected through the agent. The underlying lawsuit over whether Comet's shopping feature violates Amazon's terms of service continues regardless of the appeal outcome. [1][2]
Amazon's spokesperson described the order as protecting "a trusted shopping experience for Amazon customers." Perplexity said it "will continue to fight for the right of internet users to choose whatever AI they want." [1]
Atlas interpretation: Comet's shopping feature launched inside Perplexity's browser less than a year before this order, as one of the first mainstream attempts to let an AI agent complete a purchase on a site it does not operate. The injunction does not touch Comet generally, only its reach into Amazon's password-protected pages, so the near-term effect is narrower than a ban on agentic shopping: it is a ban on this agent shopping on this retailer's site without that retailer's own sign-off. [1]
Sources
- Amazon wins a temporary injunction against Perplexity's Comet browser
Engadget · Mar 10, 2026
- Judge blocks Perplexity's AI bot from shopping on Amazon in early test of agentic commerce
GeekWire · Mar 10, 2026