Meta released Muse in September, an AI agent that can shop for you. You tell it what you want, it finds it, and with your permission it buys it. Walmart, Gap, Best Buy and Sephora signed on. Shopify said Muse will be able to buy from every merchant on its platform.
Amazon blocked it within days.
The Wall Street Journal's CMO Today laid out how split retail is. Some brands are rushing to let agents in. Others are locking them out on purpose. Here is where the big names sit, as reported.
| Stance | Who | What they said |
|---|---|---|
| Open | QVC, HSN | Agents can buy. QVC sends its catalog to OpenAI and Google to be found. |
| Case by case | Gap | Decides which agents can browse and which can check out. |
| Browse, not buy | Tapestry (Coach, Kate Spade) | Agents can look but not purchase. Fraud and "inventory hoarding." Building checkout anyway, to be ready. |
| Closed | Kohl's | Prevents agent purchases. |
| Closed | Amazon | Blocked Muse. Also blocks agents from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and Perplexity, per research by Billions Network. |
| Closed | eBay | Since January, no agents without express permission. |
The reasons for closing are real. Amazon said Muse did not identify itself as AI and raised privacy and security concerns about customer account data. Fraud is real. Bots that fill carts and never buy are real. And the demand is not proven yet: only 3% of US adults say they would trust an agent to complete a purchase, according to a survey by payments firm NMI.
So blocking looks like the safe choice. I think it is the risky one.
Every gate I have watched has leaked
I think about the Orlando airport. For years, Uber and Lyft drivers could not pick up regular riders at Orlando International. The taxi and ground transportation companies fought ride sharing hard, and Mears, the dominant local operator, was among the loudest opponents. Mears' chairman called Uber "an existential threat to the taxi industry."
Riders wanted Uber anyway. Some drivers came to the pickup curb regardless, and the airport ended up adding geofence detection to catch them. Then in 2017 Florida passed a state law that forced the airport to accommodate ride sharing. In November 2018, Mears announced a partnership with Uber, the first of its kind between Uber and a taxi company in the US.
The gatekeeper did not stop the technology. It decided how long it would spend outside it.
Banks ran the same play a decade ago. In 2015, large banks cut off budgeting apps like Mint that logged into customer accounts to read balances. JPMorgan said Intuit's traffic was flooding its site. Customers kept handing their bank passwords to those apps anyway. In 2023, eight years after the first blocks, Plaid estimated only a little over 60% of its traffic had moved to proper bank connections. Five years later JPMorgan had signed data-sharing deals with Plaid, Intuit, Finicity and Yodlee, and in 2024 the CFPB finalized a federal rule on consumer data access. The banks spent years fighting a door they ended up building.
What blocking actually does
When customers want something and a gatekeeper says no, four things tend to happen.
- A gray market fills the gap. Somebody serves the demand outside the official channel, with less safety and no data coming back to you.
- The honest players leave and the disguised ones stay. A block works on agents that say who they are. It does not work on the ones that do not.
- You stop learning. Traffic you block is traffic you cannot measure. You lose the one thing you need to decide well: evidence.
- The terms get set without you. Mears joined Uber on Uber's app. The banks connected on terms written by a regulator. Late entrants negotiate from behind.
This is not only a retail question
You do not need to sell sneakers to face this. Somebody will ask an assistant to book a class at a gym, request a quote from a contractor, schedule a demo, reorder supplies or compare agencies. Your website, your booking flow and your checkout are going to get agent visitors whether or not you decided anything.
Most companies have not decided. Their policy on AI agents is whatever their security vendor shipped as a default.
The series
This series is four short reads on how blocking can backfire and how to decide on purpose instead.
- This post: the split, and why the block is the risky part.
- Orlando's airport kept Uber out for years. The riders got picked up anyway. The gray market history in more detail.
- Block the agent that says who it is, and you are left with the ones that don't. Why blocking selects for disguise.
- Open, closed or ready: decide your company's AI agent policy on purpose. A one-page policy for a leadership team.
Frequently asked questions
Which retailers block AI shopping agents?
As reported in October 2026, Amazon blocks Meta's Muse and agents from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and Perplexity; eBay bars agents without express permission; Kohl's prevents agent purchases; Tapestry lets agents browse but not buy. Walmart, Gap, Best Buy and Sephora partnered with Muse.
Why do retailers block AI shopping agents?
The reasons given are control of customer data, fraud, bots that hoard inventory in carts, the customer experience, and agents that do not identify themselves.
Does blocking new technology work?
Historically it delays rather than stops it. Orlando International Airport restricted Uber and Lyft until a 2017 state law; banks blocked budgeting apps in 2015 and later signed data-sharing deals and came under a federal data access rule.
Sources
- The Wall Street Journal, CMO Today, on retailers and agentic commerce (October 2026)
- Amazon kicks out Meta's Muse in split over AI shopping, Yahoo Finance
- Orlando airport authority lifts restrictions on Uber, Lyft drivers, Bay News 9
- Uber picks up partnership with Mears, Central Florida Public Media
- JPMorgan Chase moves to block fintechs from screen scraping, American Banker
- Small banks, fintechs ask CFPB for more time to phase out screen scraping, Banking Dive
- Required Rulemaking on Personal Financial Data Rights, Federal Register
Put the decision on your agenda
OTP is readable from any MCP client, because we decided to let agents in. In Claude Desktop, Cursor or any MCP client, add this block:
"otp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@orgtp/mcp-server"]
}
Restart the client. Then ask: "Use OTP to show me Sneeze It's chart. Who owns each seat, and what number is each one measured on?"
Start free at orgtp.com. Every seat is free, for people and agents. You pay only for the AI you use.
All four on one page: When brands block the AI shopping agents.
Series: When brands block the AI shopping agents. Part 1 of 4. Read this post as markdown: /blog/blocking-ai-shopping-agents-backfires.md.