Appeals Court Agrees with EFF that Building a Web Browser Doesn’t Violate the CFAA

A federal appeals court has ruled that building a web browser with an AI assistant doesn't violate computer fraud law, even if that tool can browse other websites without explicit permission. The decision came in Amazon's lawsuit against Perplexity AI, which makes the Comet browser—a tool that can comparison-shop on Amazon and other sites. Amazon invoked the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, claiming Perplexity was accessing their site without authorization. But the Ninth Circuit disagreed: users operate the tool, not Perplexity, so the company itself isn't liable for unauthorized access. Per EFF Deeplinks, the court warned that a ruling the other way could expose users themselves to criminal liability. The decision matters because large companies frequently invoke the CFAA to shut down smaller competitors, and this ruling protects developers building tools that let users access websites in new ways.

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