"Won't get bullied" says Aravind Srinivas as Amazon sends legal threat to Perplexity

Amazon has issued a legal warning to Perplexity AI, demanding that the startup remove its agentic browsing assistant, Comet, from Amazon’s online store. Both companies confirmed the dispute publicly on Tuesday, marking the e-commerce giant’s first direct legal challenge against an AI firm.

According to Perplexity, Amazon has repeatedly cautioned the company that Comet, its AI-powered shopping tool, violates Amazon’s terms of service by failing to disclose that it is an automated agent. The matter escalated when Amazon sent a cease-and-desist letter — which Perplexity described as “aggressive” — prompting the startup to publish a defiant blog post titled “Bullying is not innovation.”

CEO of Perplexity, Aravind Srinivas took to the social media platform X and wrote that "we will have to stand up for them and not get bullied by Amazon."

We would be happy to work together with Amazon to figure out a win-win outcome for both us and them. But attempts to block our Comet Assistant on Amazon and hurt our users -- we will have to stand up for them and not get bullied by Amazon. https://t.co/Bxr9yHO0f6

— Aravind Srinivas (@AravSrinivas) November 4, 2025

In the post, Perplexity argued that Comet acts under the direct instruction of human users, giving it the same permissions as a human shopper. “This week, Perplexity received an aggressive legal threat from Amazon, demanding we prohibit Comet users from using their AI assistants on Amazon. This is Amazon’s first legal salvo against an AI company, and it is a threat to all internet users,” the company said.

Amazon, however, contends that third-party agents operating on behalf of users must clearly identify themselves — a standard followed across several industries. “It is how others operate, including food delivery apps and the restaurants they take orders for, delivery service apps and the stores they shop from, and online travel agencies and the airlines they book tickets with,” Amazon said in a statement, as per a report by TechCrunch.

The e-commerce major maintains that Perplexity could continue its operations if it simply identified its agent when interacting with Amazon’s site. Yet, the company also hinted it could block Comet or other third-party bots entirely. “We think it’s fairly straightforward that third-party applications offering to make purchases on behalf of customers should operate openly and respect service provider decisions on whether or not to participate,” Amazon said.

Perplexity has countered that Amazon’s actions are commercially motivated. It alleges the e-commerce firm aims to preserve its own advertising and product placement revenues — areas where an AI shopper, immune to upselling or sponsored product visibility, could disrupt profits.

The tension mirrors earlier controversies involving Perplexity. Earlier this year, Cloudflare accused the AI company of scraping web data in defiance of site restrictions. However, Perplexity supporters argued that its activity merely replicated how a human user accesses public information when prompted — a grey area in defining acceptable AI web behaviour.

For now, Amazon’s demand adds to the growing debate over how AI agents should interact with commercial platforms — and whether the next frontier of e-commerce will be driven by bots acting as consumers themselves.