[andreybaskov]

Agentic browsers raise a lot of questions that were hanging there even before LLMs.

Can I ask my partner to buy a product on Amazon? Can I ask my personal assistant to buy a product on Amazon? Can I hire a contractor to buy products on Amazon? Can I communicate with a contractor via API to direct them what products to buy? What if there is no human on the other end and its an LLM?

Same issue with LinkedIn. I know execs who have assistants running their socials. Is this legal?

[esafak]

Perplexity should use this argument.

[ctvo]

You've been spamming this in a few threads.

A private business can 100% refuse service to you. Examples with regards to "delegation":

- If you come in using a form of non-cash payment that doesn't belong to you.

- If you're purchasing a car, and are filling out paperwork under someone else's name. FYI, you can buy cars on Amazon.com.

- If you attempt to pick-up a pre-order or an item earmarked for someone else.

...

Of course some businesses are more or less restrictive base on fraud chance, yada yada, but you get the idea. You're not being oppressed. Go shop elsewhere.

[andreybaskov]

Apologies, I didn't mean to spam, haven't seen the other thread that picked up more votes and was really curious about where the line is.

I completely understand private businesses having a right to refuse a service without a cause. But as others pointed, the question is to what degree "delegation" is acceptable if I'm acting in a good faith?

I'm guessing the answer is "to a degree it doesn't impact our business".

[kelnos]

I don't think any of your examples are analogous to the questions/point the GP was trying to make. Your questions seem to be centered around someone trying to trick or defraud a retailer; GP's is about simple, straightforward delegation.

But yes, agreed, businesses have the right to refuse service to anyone (outside of illegal discrimination).

We should fight it, though, when those refusals are backed by anti-consumer practices. It's pretty clear that Amazon doesn't like agent-mediated purchases because it allows the customer to bypass Amazon's ability to put sponsored products in front of you, and try to get you to buy related and add-on products along with what you actually want.

Sure, it is their right to do that, but as consumers I think we shouldn't be complacent and just take what the big shopping overlords feed us. Consolidation (and races to the bottom such as this) is making it harder and harder to find competing retailers and products when we want to vote with our wallets as to what kinds of shopping experiences are acceptable.

And the bottom line is that if Amazon realizes that they're losing sales because people want to use AI agents to buy things, and they're banning those agents, they'll change their tune. But that only works so long as there are alternatives with better practices, and, well... there aren't many.