①The latest reports indicate that Amazon has issued a cease-and-desist letter demanding that Perplexity stop providing AI agents operating on its shopping website; ②Perplexity referred to this as “bullying” and argued that Amazon has no right to prohibit users from using third-party proxy services on its platform; ③This conflict is also regarded as an early example of the “AI-era platform commercial warfare.”
A preview of the conflict in the AI era's internet platform business wars unexpectedly sparked a heated debate.
According to the latest news early Wednesday morning,$Amazon (AMZN.US)$Amazon has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity, demanding that the artificial intelligence search startup prohibit its AI browser, Comet, from making purchases on behalf of users on the Amazon online marketplace.
Sources familiar with the matter stated that Amazon accused Perplexity’s AI agent of employing fraudulent methods when shopping on behalf of users, violating the website's terms of service. It also alleged that Perplexity’s AI tool degraded Amazon’s shopping experience and introduced privacy vulnerabilities.
As background, Amazon’s terms of service for its online store prohibit “the use of any data mining, robots, or similar data collection and extraction tools.” In November 2024, Amazon requested that Perplexity refrain from deploying AI agents capable of shopping on its website until both parties reached an agreement, to which Perplexity agreed and complied.
Sources indicated that when launching the AI browser named Comet earlier this summer, Perplexity disguised these agents as “Chrome browser users.” Amazon noted in its letter that after Perplexity refused to halt this behavior, Amazon attempted to block it using technical measures. However, Perplexity subsequently released a new version of Comet to bypass these restrictions.
Amazon spokesperson Lara Hendrickson stated in a declaration: “We believe that when third-party applications place orders on behalf of customers on other platforms, they should operate transparently and respect the platform provider’s decision on whether to participate.”
She added that other companies (including food delivery platforms and online travel agencies) operate in the same manner.
This conflict also offers an early glimpse into the evolving “AI-era commercial warfare”: how will internet platforms, large and small, respond to third-party AI tools operating within their domains?
In Amazon’s case, the company is also training its own AI agents to provide functions such as recommending products to consumers and placing orders.
From a business perspective, third-party AI agents pose a direct threat to Amazon's lucrative advertising business, which primarily generates revenue by selling prominent placements for product search keywords. If external bots shop on behalf of customers, sellers' advertisements become worthless.
In response to Amazon's 'eviction notice,' Perplexity promptly released an open letter titled 'Bullying Is Not Innovation.'
This AI startup, valued at over $20 billion, stated that Amazon is suppressing competitors in the AI agent space and argued that users should have the right to choose their preferred agents to place orders on Amazon. The startup wrote, 'This is a classic bullying tactic aimed at scaring away disruptive companies like Perplexity that are trying to improve people’s lives.'
Responding to Amazon's accusation of 'disguising AI agents,' Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas stated that he sees no need to distinguish between users and AI agents acting on their behalf. He argued that AI agents should enjoy 'exactly the same rights and responsibilities as real human users,' and more importantly, 'it is not up to Amazon to review this matter.'
Interestingly, against the backdrop of the U.S. tech industry's interconnected 'AI chain,' Perplexity also has close ties with Amazon. Srinivas noted that his company has placed orders worth hundreds of millions of dollars with Amazon Web Services (AWS), and he himself has publicly supported AWS events. Additionally, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is also a shareholder of Perplexity.
Editor/Joryn
