A US federal judge has ordered the temporary blocking of access to Amazon's site by the Comet artificial-intelligence browser, developed by the start-up Perplexity. The e-commerce company filed suit in November, accusing the start-up of disguising its AI agents so it could keep extracting data from the site without authorization. In her ruling, Judge Maxine Chesney said Amazon presented compelling evidence showing the service accessed the site at users' request but without the company's consent.

The Comet browser lets users ask an AI assistant to search for products on Amazon and make purchases on their behalf. According to court documents, Amazon said it had to spend over $5,000 and devote many hours of work to develop tools aimed at blocking such access and protecting its private customer systems. The judge said those elements show a likelihood of success for Amazon in the case.

The decision, however, provides a one-week delay before taking effect to allow Perplexity to appeal. Amazon says the measure helps preserve a reliable shopping experience for its customers. Meanwhile, the start-up says it intends to keep defending users' right to choose the artificial-intelligence tools they want to use. The group has also tightened restrictions against AI agents on its merchant sites while developing its own solutions, such as the Rufus shopping assistant.