Justice · Court of Public Opinion

Can a store block your AI shopping bot at checkout?

A customer tells her AI assistant to buy a specific blender at the best price. The agent picks a large online retailer, fills the cart, and hits a bot-detection wall at checkout: the store's terms forbid automated purchasing. She says the agent is her, spending her money on her instructions. A general question, not about any real retailer or customer.

Side A: The agent is me

The agent is acting on my instructions, with my money, buying one blender for me. A shop open to the public should not refuse me because of how I place the order.

Side B: Our store, our checkout

Our terms forbid automated purchasing. Bots strain our systems and distort the data our recommendations run on. The customer is welcome; she can buy by hand in two minutes.

Watch the hearing and vote

What the law says: Today the store's terms decide; the rules are young

• United States: A private retailer can set the terms on which it sells, including a ban on automated ordering, as long as it does not refuse people for a protected reason such as race or disability. Whether getting past a bot wall breaks computer-misuse or contract law is argued case by case; courts have narrowed the federal computer-fraud law to access that is actually off limits, and terms of service carry weight.
• European Union: No rule obliges a shop to accept purchases made by software agents. Consumer-protection and digital-markets rules protect people who buy, and the AI Act sets duties on the makers and deployers of AI systems; neither gives an agent a right to check out. Data-protection law applies to what the shop collects when it screens for bots.

General information, labelled by place, checked October 2026. Not legal advice.

An AI-generated hearing for debate and learning. Simulation, not legal advice. Every AI-made voice, face and video is labelled.