Amazon sued Perplexity on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that the startup’s Comet browser lets AI agents make purchases on Amazon while disguising themselves as Google Chrome and refusing to identify themselves as agents. The company says the practice violates computer-fraud and abuse statutes, misuses Prime benefits, and puts customer data at risk. Amazon is seeking compensatory damages and an injunction.

The complaint follows a cease-and-desist letter dated Oct. 31, which Perplexity discussed in a Tuesday blog post. In a blog post, Perplexity calls the move bullying and a threat to user choice, arguing that easier shopping means more transactions, and that Amazon is more interested in ads, sponsored results, and upsells. Amazon counters that Comet’s agents never asked permission and degrade the shopping experience.

Amazon has spent months blocking external AI agents, and CEO Andy Jassy told investors last week he expects to partner with third-party agents eventually, under terms that keep the experience good. In PCMag’s testing, Comet ordered an item from an already-logged-in Amazon account in about 30 seconds, confirming only at the end.