Amazon.com IncCourt ruling vacates injunction against Perplexity, weakening Amazon's CFAA claim and leaving trademark claims active.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on August 4, 2026, that an AI agent is a tool, not a person, leaving users liable for agent actions under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The decision in Amazon v. Perplexity AI vacated a preliminary injunction against Perplexity's Comet AI shopping agent, with the court calling Amazon's CFAA claim legally baseless and bad policy. However, the court acknowledged that legal treatment of agentic AI will change, while Amazon's trademark and state-law claims remain active on remand. Market data shows only 14% of consumers trust AI to execute purchases without verification, and 42% refuse to trust AI for transactions over $25, creating a gap between legal assumptions and user behavior. In response, Mastercard launched Agent Pay for Machines with Verifiable Intent, Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol now has over 100 partners, and Cloudflare Wallets introduced human-configured guardrails like per-agent spending allowances and merchant allowlists.
Amazon.com IncCourt ruling vacates injunction against Perplexity, weakening Amazon's CFAA claim and leaving trademark claims active.
Apple Inc.
Mastercard IncMastercard launches Agent Pay for Machines with Verifiable Intent, addressing AI agent transaction trust gap.
Visa Inc. Class AVisa's Trusted Agent Protocol gains over 100 partners, expanding its AI payment ecosystem.
Cloudflare IncCloudflare Wallets introduces human-configured guardrails for AI agents, positioning as a security solution.
9th Circuit vacates injunction against Perplexity's Comet AI agent, ruling CFAA claim baseless.