--- title: "Ninth Circuit Ruling on AI Shopping Agents Explained ยท AgentDots" description: "Lifting an Amazon injunction against Perplexity's Comet, the Ninth Circuit found that a site is accessed by the user rather than the agent. What that means." url: https://agentdots.org/news/ninth-circuit-on-shopping-agents/ lang: en --- Law and platforms # Ninth Circuit lifts Amazon's injunction against Perplexity's Comet agent The court held that under anti-hacking law it is the user, not the agent, who accesses a site, leaving contract claims unresolved. August 4, 2026 A federal appeals court has vacated the injunction Amazon won against Comet, the browser assistant made by Perplexity, according to an August alert from the law firm Ballard Spahr and analysis by Major Matters. The Ninth Circuit court reasoned that, for the purposes of the federal anti-hacking law, the website is accessed by the person directing the agent. In the court's framing the agent is an instrument and the user is the actor. The ruling does not decide whether agents breach the terms a site imposes on visitors, and Amazon's contract claims against Perplexity go on. It does, however, give an early signal of how courts may assign responsibility when an agent acts inside someone's account. The decision lands in the middle of a wider fight over agentic shopping. Amazon has pushed back against a number of agents on its store, Comet and tools from OpenAI and Google among them, and in September it went on to block Meta's Muse when Meta would not take Amazon out of the agent's shopping features. What it means for you Assume the law will treat whatever your agent does under your login as something you did. Grant it only the powers you would be willing to use in person. **Sources** - [Ballard Spahr](https://www.ballardspahr.com/insights/alerts-and-articles/2026/08/ninth-circuit-opines-on-agentic-ai-in-e-commerce) - [Major Matters](https://majormatters.co/p/ninth-circuit-ai-agent-tool-not-person) ## Incidents - [Appeals court calls a shopping agent the user's tool](https://agentdots.org/incidents/ninth-circuit-agent-case/) ## More news September 29, 2026 [OpenAI unveils Dots, persistent agents that carry on once you log off](https://agentdots.org/news/openai-launches-dots/) September 29, 2026 [GPT-6.1 Sol halves cached input, cutting the cost of long agent tasks](https://agentdots.org/news/gpt-6-1-sol-price/) September 29, 2026 [ChatGPT Pro adds a $500 tier as the $200 plan loses allowance](https://agentdots.org/news/chatgpt-pro-500/) September 29, 2026 [Australia receives an OpenAI apology over an agent's Medicare portal breach](https://agentdots.org/news/openai-apologises-to-australia/) September 28, 2026 [OpenAI shelves GPT-6.1 Astra a day before DevDay](https://agentdots.org/news/openai-shelves-astra/) September 28, 2026 [Muse told a Marketplace buyer where its owner lived, reviewer says](https://agentdots.org/news/muse-gave-out-address/)