A Beijing-based online book publisher has accused competitors of abusing their market-leading position by telling two authors to stop writing for the Beijing company, Shanghai Daily reported.

It is the first monopoly dispute handled by a local court since China's Anti-monopoly Law came into effect on August 1 last year.

Beijing Sursen Electronic Co Ltd sued Shanghai Shanda Network Development Co Ltd and Shanghai Xuanting Entertainment Information and Technology Co Ltd in Shanghai No 1 Intermediate People's Court.

Sursen, which operates the Web portal www.du8.com, alleges the two companies are co-managing www.qidian.com and abusing their dominant role in the market to create a monopoly.

It is seeking a public apology and 16,820 yuan in damages.

Sursen said it asked two writers to create a sequel to a popular fairy tale originally published on www.qidian.com in May 2008.

But, according to Sursen, www.qidian.com told the two writers to stop writing the sequel and ordered them to apologize on the website.

"The two writers had to stop writing for fear that they would be driven out of their writing network because www.qidian.com has a dominant position in the market," Sun Ying, Sursen's attorney, told Shanghai Daily.

"There is no law to stipulate that the writer of a sequel must obtain approval from the author of the original novel," Sun said.

                                                                                                     Source: China Daily