wrote VNG's complaint to the People's Court of HCMC.

VNG, Vietnam's leading technology company, has filed a lawsuit against TikTok, the Chinese short-form video platform for not having sufficient licences for the songs being used in its videos.

VNG said TikTok used audio tracks owned by Zing, a VNG subsidiary, without the company's consent.

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According to Reuters, in its complaint to the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City, VNG seeks damage compensation from TikTok and demands that it ceases the use of Zing's music.

"VNG requests TikTok to remove all music segments taken from Zing records from both the TikTok application and the website, and an indemnification for damages of over VND221 billion ($9.5 million)," the document wrote.

Like other countries, TikTok has become famous in Vietnam, with 10 million users as of August, with millions of short-clips uploaded to the platform. 

However, the Vietnam Musicians' Association commented: "TikTok offers a very complex business model, in order to avoid having to comply with copyright regulations in Vietnam".

Around the world, TikTok is in trouble in the US, as the US government sees the application as a threat to national security.

ICTnews contacted Zing and was confirmed about the lawsuit against TikTok.

Specifically, VNG's complaint dated May 28 alleged that there are many videos containing many songs copyrighted by Zing on the TikTok platform. VNG's March 11 report shows that a total of 150 Zing records are used in more than 11 million videos on TikTok's website and app.

VNG believes that the above-mentioned infringement of intellectual property rights by TikTok causes damage to the company, estimated at more than VND221 billion.

According to VNG's complaint, the company sent a letter of warning to TikTok in June 2019, but TikTok did not remove the songs that VNG claimed to be violated.

TikTok's media representative responded to ICTnews that there was no information about the lawsuit.

Hai Dang-Anh Hao