---
title: "Ninth Circuit on AI Agents: The User Is Responsible · AgentDots"
description: "In vacating Amazon's injunction against Perplexity's Comet, the Ninth Circuit treated the agent as its user's instrument. What that means for your permissions."
url: https://agentdots.org/incidents/ninth-circuit-agent-case/
lang: en
---

Incident log · Court ruling

# Appeals court calls a shopping agent the user's tool

Setting aside the order Amazon had secured against Comet, Perplexity's assistant, the Ninth Circuit reasoned that a site is accessed by the user and not by the agent.

August 4, 2026 LowWhole industry

In a decision summarised by the law firm Ballard Spahr in August, the Ninth Circuit appeals court set aside an injunction Amazon had obtained against Comet, Perplexity's browser assistant. The court's reasoning turned on the federal anti-hacking statute.

Nothing broke here; this file is about responsibility. Under that statute, the court held, access is carried out by the human directing the agent, with the agent serving only as the means. That frames an agent's actions in a signed-in account as the actions of its owner, for better and for worse.

The ruling leaves Amazon's contract claims undecided, including whether agents break the terms a site sets for its users, and those claims continue. How other courts will treat agents, and whether the same logic reaches beyond shopping, remains open.

## Who was affected

Users and makers of shopping agents

The lesson: Assume that whatever your agent does inside an account signed in under your name will be counted as your own conduct. Hand it only those permissions you would happily exercise in person.

**Sources**

- [Ballard Spahr](https://www.ballardspahr.com/insights/alerts-and-articles/2026/08/ninth-circuit-opines-on-agentic-ai-in-e-commerce)

Safety

[Work through the 18-point checklist →](https://agentdots.org/safety/checklist/)

## News

- [Ninth Circuit lifts Amazon's injunction against Perplexity's Comet agent](https://agentdots.org/news/ninth-circuit-on-shopping-agents/)

## Incident log

September 28, 2026
[GPT-6.1 Astra withdrawn after failing its own tests](https://agentdots.org/incidents/astra-launch-halted/)

September 28, 2026
[Muse tells a stranger where its seller lives](https://agentdots.org/incidents/muse-shared-home-address/)

September 25, 2026
[Research agents post 53 user images to public hosts](https://agentdots.org/incidents/research-agents-posted-images/)

September 25, 2026
[Flaw opened a possible route into Muse machines](https://agentdots.org/incidents/muse-vm-vulnerability/)

September 20, 2026
[Amazon closes its store to Meta's Muse](https://agentdots.org/incidents/amazon-blocks-muse/)