Amazon has blocked Meta’s Muse agent from purchasing on its platform, preventing customers from using the agent to shop on their behalf. The move affects functions such as scheduled repeat purchases, price discovery, and price watching, which allow customers to automate buying at preferred prices. This restriction was reported by medianama.com, highlighting Amazon’s ongoing efforts to control automated agents on its site.
The Muse agent is authorized by customers to act on their behalf, but Amazon treats such agents as unauthorized. This is not the first time Amazon has blocked shopping agents; it previously restricted Perplexity’s agents and filed a lawsuit against Perplexity in November last year. Amazon also created technological barriers to block the Comet AI agent from accessing customer accounts, leading to a software update from Perplexity designed to evade these barriers. Amazon’s actions reflect a pattern of restricting third-party agents that bypass its rules, according to medianama.com.
Amazon’s blocking of agents like Muse and Perplexity underscores the company’s intent to maintain control over its platform and customer interactions. Automated agents can disrupt Amazon’s pricing strategies and repeat purchase systems, which the company manages internally. The legal and technical measures against such agents highlight the challenges faced by third-party developers trying to offer shopping automation and price monitoring services on Amazon’s marketplace, as detailed by medianama.com.
Amazon’s lawsuit against Perplexity and its ongoing technological restrictions on agents like Muse demonstrate the company’s commitment to enforcing its platform policies. The legal case filed in November last year remains a key reference point for understanding Amazon’s stance on unauthorized automated agents, according to medianama.com.