(Yicai Global) Aug. 18 -- Tencent Holdings is taking the Chinese version of TikTok to court for allowing its users to upload clips of the Chinese internet giant’s hit TV series Crime Crackdown and airing them without authorization, The Paper reported today.

Tencent’s video arm has filed a lawsuit against Douyin and its operator Bytedance at the Beijing Intellectual Property Court and is claiming damages of CNY100 million (USD15.4 million), the report said. The court accepted the case yesterday.

Douyin hasn’t been contacted by the court, China’s biggest short video platform said today. The Beijing-based company has an agreement with a third party that produced the series together with Tencent, and an official account for the series has been opened, it said.

There have already been one billion views of the series on Tencent Video since it was released on Aug. 9. Although other TV channels in Shanghai and Beijing are also broadcasting it, Tencent Video holds exclusive online rights to information distribution about the series.

Tencent has warned Douyin several times, but still the platform’s users are uploading clips of the drama and Douyin does nothing about it, Shenzhen-based Tencent said.

Editor: Kim Taylor