France’s Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers (SACD) has filed an emergency injunction against TikTok in the Paris Judicial Court over the unauthorized use of its members’ work on the platform.
The Paris-based rights and royalties management body which represents some 58,000 cinema, TV and theatre writers and composers said in a statement on Thursday that the move followed four years of fruitless negotiations with the Chinese owned short video platform.
“For many years, TikTok has been using copyrighted works from SACD’s repertoire without any authorization, never offering acceptable compensation to the authors of these works, and has failed to remove the works as requested by us,” said the body.
Snippets of popular French film and TV franchises, such as Brice de Nice, Asterix and Obelix and Kaamelott among others, can be found all over the platform. These titles are among millions of works registered at SACD.
The body, which was created in 1829, has been assiduous in ensuring its members receive fair payment for their work in the digital age.
In other actions, in 2014 it became the first European body to broker a residuals deal with Netflix and has also been involved in negotiations over local investment obligations with the Netflix, Amazon and AppleTV+.
SACD’s statement on Thursday also noted a lack of transparency from TikTok regarding its financial data.
It explained that as an online content-sharing service, TikTok, was subject to the provisions of the French Intellectual Property Code (CPI) and that as such it was in position of copyright infringement in the absence of a contract with SACD for works registered with the body.
“SACD is seeking compensation for the harm suffered by the authors of works used or displayed on the platform, as well as disclosure of TikTok’s revenue. Copyright royalties must be determined based on appropriate and reliable financial data.”
A hearing is set for March 2026.
Deadline has contacted TikTok for their response to the legal action and an update on whether it will remove the contested material from its site and is awaiting a reply.
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