A federal appeals court has handed the artificial intelligence industry a potentially significant early victory in the development of the law regarding agentic commerce. In a unanimous opinion issued Tuesday (Aug. 4), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated a preliminary injunction that had barred Perplexity’s Comet browser and AI shopping assistant from accessing Amazon.com. The panel concluded that Amazon is unlikely to prevail on its claims under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) because, on the record before the court, it is Amazon’s customers—not Perplexity—that access Amazon’s computer systems. The decision, described by Reuters as the first federal appellate ruling addressing whether AI agents acting on behalf of users may legally access online platforms, establishes an important early framework for the rapidly emerging field of agentic commerce. Amazon sued Perplexity in November, alleging that the startup’s Comet browser covertly accessed password-protected customer accounts, exposing users to cybersecurity risks and violating both the CFAA and California’s Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (CDAFA). A district court granted Amazon a preliminary injunction in March after finding “strong evidence” that Perplexity’s AI agent unlawfully accessed Amazon’s systems. The Ninth Circuit, however, concluded that the district court applied the law too broadly. Writing for the panel, Judge Milan D. Smith Jr. emphasized that the CFAA remains principally an anti-hacking statute. The court concluded that