A US appeals court has overturned an injunction blocking Perplexity AI’s Comet shopping assistant from operating on Amazon, delivering a significant win for developers of agentic AI tools.

The court ruled Amazon was unlikely to prove that Perplexity had breached federal or California computer access laws.

Amazon sued Perplexity in November 2025, alleging Comet accessed its online store and customers’ password-protected accounts without authorisation. A lower court granted Amazon a preliminary injunction in March.

However, the three-judge appeals panel found Amazon users, rather than Perplexity itself, were accessing the retailer’s systems.

Comet, which launched last year, can compare products, prices and reviews, and carry out shopping tasks on a user’s behalf.

The court said Perplexity may receive screenshots and send instructions to the assistant, but this did not mean the company had directly gained entry to Amazon’s servers.

The same reasoning was applied to Amazon’s claim under California’s Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act.

The judges also found the remaining factors required to justify an injunction – including irreparable harm, public interest and the balance of equities – favoured Perplexity.

The ruling is limited to the facts of the case and does not establish a broader legal framework for agentic AI. The matter has been returned to the US District Court for further proceedings, while other potential claims against Perplexity may continue.

Perplexity chief communications officer Jesse Dwyer said the company would continue to defend users’ right to choose their preferred AI tools.

Amazon said it disagreed with the decision and was evaluating its next steps.