Agentic Commerce: Contractual Boundaries And Consumer Rights Under UK Law

Recent developments in agentic commerce have raised important questions for both UK consumers and e‑commerce platforms. A particular area of focus is the use of AI assistants capable of browsing, comparing prices, and, in certain instances, automating checkout processes. Major platforms, including Amazon, have sought to contractually restrict these tools through blanket clauses in their Terms of Use and by initiating litigation against providers of AI-powered web browsers/assistants, as highlighted in the recently announced litigation initiated by Amazon against Perplexity.

The commercial rationale for such contractual prohibitions is understandable. E‑commerce platforms have a legitimate interest in preventing abuse, automated scraping, or system disruption, particularly because they are exposed to potentialrisks from third-party providers of AI shopping agents with which they have no contractual relationship and, as a result, cannot rely on indemnities or other