With its AI-powered search engine, Perplexity has established a reputation for providing concise, straightforward responses along with citations to the sources. The business unveiled its latest initiative, the “Comet browser,” earlier this year in July.
After a successful debut, Comet officially became available for free to users around the world in October. The e-commerce giant Amazon sent a letter to Perplexity, demanding that the company stop users from using its AI-powered Comet browser to shop or place orders on their behalf.
Perplexity explained that its Comet Assistant lets users search for products and even make purchases on Amazon — a feature many users reportedly enjoy. However, the company says Amazon hit back with what it called an “aggressive legal threat,” ordering Perplexity to end the practice.
In recent months, Amazon has started blocking outside AI tools from scanning its website — a move that reportedly targets systems created by major tech players like OpenAI, Google, and Meta.
In a blog post, Amazon stated that third-party shopping assistants should be transparent about their operations and honor a company’s choice to participate or not. The retail giant also accused Perplexity of doing the opposite — claiming the startup tried to bypass its systems to access Amazon’s store without permission.
Amazon also claimed that Perplexity’s AI agents make the shopping experience worse by displaying limited product options, skipping personalized suggestions, and sometimes missing out on faster delivery choices for customers.
Amazon emphasized that AI-powered tools like Perplexity’s Comet must follow the same rules as other third-party apps. The company said it has repeatedly asked Perplexity to remove Amazon from the Comet browser, citing what it calls a poor shopping and customer service experience for users.
According to Perplexity, Comet is designed to act like a personal digital assistant — helping users browse the web, manage their tabs, shop online, write emails, and handle other everyday tasks with ease.
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