(Reuters). -China’s digital music platform platforms were told Thursday by the copyright authority that they are prohibited from signing exclusive copyright agreements unless there is a special circumstance. The announcement comes amid a clampdown on monopolistic conduct in China’s private sectors.

According to an official statement on WeChat, the National Copyright Administration of China gave the order at a meeting with prominent digital music platforms in Beijing, along with record and songwriting copyright firms, on Thursday.

It comes amid increasing Chinese regulatory pressure on China’s technology sector. This has focused on concerns such as unfair competition, monopolistic behaviour and consumer rights.

Tencent Holdings, (OTC:), announced last year it had terminated all copyright agreements with music after China’s market regulator ordered it to. It was found that the company held over 80% of music library resources, which gave it more leverage over copyright upstream parties and made it possible to block new entrants.

It was not mentioned by the NCAC which companies had been called in Thursday. Tencent is not the only company that has popular streaming services. China bans streaming services that are internationally popular like Spotify (NYSE :).

According to the NCAC, although copyright practices have improved significantly since 2015 when it banned streaming of unlicensed music and directed platforms to delete millions of songs from their servers, there was still much work to standardize the industry.

The talks highlighted that digital music platforms and record companies must… settle payments according to a guaranteed amount plus a share in actual usage. They should also not sign copyright agreements, except in exceptional cases.