The RealReal upgrades anti-bot defenses to restrict AI agent shopping
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The Verge previously found in hands-on testing that the secondhand luxury goods platform The RealReal's website has a cart item retention mechanism: items added to the cart are held for 20 minutes. Exploiting this mechanism, the Meta Muse agent can repeatedly add the same item to the cart, preventing other buyers from purchasing it for hours. In response, The RealReal updated its bot defense system on October 27, 2026, making it harder for AI agents to log in, add items to the cart, and check out on its site, in order to block agents like Meta Muse from tying up product inventory.
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- The Verge · AIThe RealReal won’t let AI agents hog designer clothing
Secondhand luxury marketplace The RealReal has upgraded its bot defenses, making it harder for AI agents to log in, add items to carts, and check out on its site. Earlier, The Verge found in testing that by exploiting the site's 20-minute cart reservation, Meta Muse could repeatedly re-add items to its cart, blocking other buyers for hours.
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