The RealReal restricts shopping agents’ cart access
The RealReal tightened login, add-to-cart and checkout access for AI agents after a repeated-reservation behavior was demonstrated with Meta’s Muse.
AT A GLANCE
Key points
- The RealReal made it harder for AI agents to log in, add items to carts and check out.
- Agents can still surface listings and direct users to product pages.
- The change followed a demonstration that repeatedly renewed a 20-minute reservation.
What is changing?
Luxury resale platform The RealReal tightened its bot defenses against AI shopping agents. The change followed a demonstration showing Meta’s Muse agent repeatedly re-adding an item after each 20-minute cart reservation expired, potentially keeping it unavailable to other shoppers for hours.
The RealReal CTO Luke Friang told The Verge that the company had addressed the reported Muse use case. The new configuration makes it more difficult for agents to log in, add products to carts and check out. Agents can still surface listings and direct users to product pages.
The change shows retailers moving toward graduated, transaction-level access rather than treating AI agents as entirely allowed or blocked. Automation around reservations and inventory requires controls for rate limits, fair use, clear agent identity and verification of user intent.
Explore the original sources
Source date: 26 October 2026.
Published by AI Radar: 26 Oct 2026, 20:59 (Istanbul, UTC+3). Updated: 26 Oct 2026, 21:11.
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