Case Explained: AMAZON.COM SERVICES, LLC V. PERPLEXITY AI, INC.

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Filed: 2026-08-04 Docket: 3:25-cv-09514- The ninth-circuit vacated the district court’s grant of a preliminary injunction in favor of Amazon.com Services, LLC, and remanded the case for further proceedings. The court held that Amazon was unlikely to succeed on the merits of its claims under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (CDAFA). The court reasoned that Perplexity AI did not “access” Amazon’s computers within the meaning of these statutes because Perplexity’s AI agent, the Assistant, operated as a tool used by individual users to navigate Amazon.com; consequently, it was the users, not Perplexity, who accessed Amazon’s servers. The court applied the rule of lenity, noting that the CFAA is primarily a criminal statute and ambiguity should be construed against liability, particularly given the emerging nature of agentic AI technology. Additionally, the court found that the remaining equitable factors favored Perplexity, as Amazon failed to demonstrate sufficient irreparable harm, the balance of equities tipped against an injunction that would burden a developing technology, and the public interest favored consumer choice over restricting nascent AI development. Do It For The Case Law is a news reporting service. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal advice.