In today’s Digest, we look at Amazon suing Perplexity over its AI shopping assistant, Epic and Google settling their lawsuit, and People Inc. signing an AI deal with Microsoft amid traffic drop.

Amazon sues Perplexity over AI shopping assistant

Amazon has filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI, alleging that the startup's automated shopping tool, Comet AI, unlawfully accessed customer accounts and masked its bot-driven activity as human interaction. The suit, lodged in the US District Court for Northern California, claims Perplexity’s software bypassed Amazon’s safeguards, posing risks to user data and undermining the integrity of its shopping experience. Amazon asserts that despite repeated warnings, Perplexity continued its practices, accusing the company of digital trespassing and calling for an immediate halt to what it described as misconduct.

According to Amazon, "Perplexity is not allowed to go where it has been expressly told it cannot; that Perplexity’s trespass involves code rather than a lockpick makes it no less unlawful." Amazon has demanded that Perplexity block its Comet AI agent from shopping on the platform. 

Epic and Google settle lawsuit

Epic Games and Google have reached a proposed settlement in their long-running antitrust dispute from a lawsuit filed in 2020.  The agreement, pending approval by Judge James Donato, builds on a prior injunction that required Google to allow rival app stores within its Play Store and prohibited the mandatory use of Google Play Billing. While those earlier measures were limited to the US and set to expire after three years, the new proposal extends globally through June 2032 and introduces a framework for “Registered App Stores” with reduced fees and easier installation.

Under the revised terms, Google would lower its standard service fee to 20% or 9%, depending on the nature of the transaction, and separate those charges from fees associated with its billing system. Developers using alternative payment methods may avoid Google’s billing fees entirely, though Google retains the right to assess service fees on such transactions. 

People Inc. signs AI deal with Microsoft amid traffic drop

People Inc., the leading US media publisher formerly known as Dotdash Meredith, has entered into a licensing agreement with Microsoft. As part of the agreement, People Inc. will serve as a launch partner in Microsoft’s publisher content marketplace, a platform designed to compensate media companies for the use of their content in AI applications.

CEO Neil Vogel described the platform as a “pay-per-use” market, allowing AI developers to compensate publishers directly for content access. He added that, “It’s a very strong endorsement of us to be in the room with them and a very strong endorsement of the publishing marketplace and the value of content to make AI that is of high value.”

This marks People Inc.’s second major AI partnership, following an earlier deal with OpenAI.