Amazon Threatens Legal Action Against Perplexity Over Claims Of...

Perplexity says it's a 'bully tactic to scare disruptive companies…out of making life better for people.'

Is your life really busy? So busy that any time spent going through the motions of online shopping is time wasted? Then there's a good chance that you're already using an AI agent to do it for you. However, not everyone is happy with this way of shopping, so much so that Amazon is threatening legal action against an AI company for doing precisely this.

The focus of Amazon's ire is an agentic AI shopping tool built into a browser called Comet, made by Perplexity. Basically, you type in that you want to buy 10 tins of cat food on Amazon, and off it goes. Comet logs in with your details, finds the right products and orders kitty munchies for you.

According to a blog post by Amazon (via Techcrunch), it doesn't have a problem with that in general. "We think it’s 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."

It then goes on to say: "This helps ensure a positive customer experience and it is how others operate, including food delivery apps and the restaurants they take orders for, delivery service apps and the stores they shop from, and online travel agencies and the airlines they book tickets with for customers."

But that's where the niceties end, and Amazon closes the post with a fairly pointed statement. "Agentic third-party applications such as Perplexity’s Comet have the same obligations, and we’ve repeatedly requested that Perplexity remove Amazon from the Comet experience, particularly in light of the significantly degraded shopping and customer service experience it provides."

Amazon has now done more than 'repeatedly request', sending a cease and desist letter (PDF warning) to Perplexity, claiming that it will "seek all available legal and equitable remedies" should the AI not comply with said demands.

You can read Perplexity's reaction to this on its blog post, which is considerably longer and more pointed than Amazon's statement. "The point of technology is to make life better for people. We call it innovation, but it’s just the constant process of asking how to make things better. Bullying, on the other hand, is when large corporations use legal threats and intimidation to block innovation and make life worse for people."

Keep up to date with the most important stories

Source: PC Gamer