Ninth Circuit: User-Directed AI Agents Don't Expose Developers to CFAA Liability

The Ninth Circuit overturned an injunction blocking Perplexity's Comet browser AI shopping tool from Amazon. The court ruled that when a browser acts on user direction, the user—not the developer—accesses the remote computer under the CFAA, the federal anti-hacking statute. This precedent extends to any AI agent hitting third-party services. Amazon's underlying lawsuit continues in San Francisco federal court.