AMAZON THREATENS LEGAL ACTION AGAINST PERPLEXITY OVER AI SHOPPING TOOL

Amazon has issued a legal warning to Perplexity, the rapidly growing Al search startup, accusing it of violating data use policies through its new “agentic shopping” feature—a tool that allows users to browse, compare, and purchase products directly through conversational interaction.

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The notice, reported this week, marks one of the first public clashes between a tech giant and an emerging Al platform over how generative models access and process commercial data.

According to sources familiar with the matter, Amazon's legal team claims that Perplexity’s shopping assistant pulls product information, prices, and reviews from Amazon's marketplace in ways that breach the retailer's terms of service. The letter alleges that Perplexity “scrapes and redistributes” listings without authorization, bypassing Amazon's official APIs and misrepresenting product availability.

Perplexity denies the claims, asserting that its system relies on licensed datasets, publicly available information, and third-party integrations that comply with fair-use principles.

HOW THE CONFLICT EMERGED

The dispute centers on Perplexity’s new agentic shopping system, launched in October as part of the company’s broader plan to integrate Al-driven commerce into its conversational platform. The feature allows users to request product comparisons—such as “Find the best noise-canceling headphones under $200”—and receive curated results with direct purchase links from multiple online retailers, including Amazon.

Amazon contends that this functionality effectively repackages its proprietary data in a way that could redirect transactions away from its own platform. The company also expressed concern that Perplexity's system may present outdated or inaccurate product listings, potentially confusing customers or misrepresenting Amazon's catalog.