When Can Amazon Block an Agentic AI Service?–Amazon vs. Perplexity (blog.ericgoldman.org)

A recent ruling in the case of Amazon v. Perplexity has significant implications for the agentic AI community. On March 9, 2026, Judge Chesney issued a preliminary injunction favoring Amazon, allowing the company to block Perplexity's Comet—an AI shopping agent—from accessing its platform. This decision underscores Amazon's concerns that such agentic AI services can undermine their e-commerce model by executing complex shopping tasks on behalf of users, potentially eroding revenue channels that rely on user interaction, such as advertising and upselling. The ruling raises critical questions about the legal treatment of agentic AI, which serves as a user's representative in workflows, contrasting with traditional browser functions. The court failed to address whether these AI agents should be granted the same rights as human users or treated as mere tools, limiting the broader implications of how the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) applies to these novel technologies. This case is seen as a potential harbinger of a more restrictive environment for AI integration in e-commerce, as it reinforces platform control over automated interactions while neglecting the need to balance user autonomy with platform security. The ongoing consequences of this ruling could stifle innovation in AI-assisted consumer services if not addressed in future legal contexts.