Ok-pop company SM Leisure has addressed the claims made by the authorized consultant of EXO members Baekhyun, Xiumin and Chen. Earlier at the moment, the trio had notified the corporate that they might be terminating their contracts on account of “mistreatment and unfair contract terms”.
Of their unique assertion, by means of authorized consultant and lawyer Lee Jae-hak, the three EXO members alleged that SM Leisure had repeatedly didn’t furnish the three Ok-pop idols with fee information over the previous 12 to 13 years. Baekhyun, Xiumin and Chen additionally claimed that the company was “perpetrating extremely unjust use of power” so as to prolong the artists’ contracts to over 17 years.
SM Leisure has since refuted the claims made by Baekhyun, Xiumin and Chen’s authorized consultant in a brand new assertion to XportsNews, as translated by Soompi. On the problem of fee information, the Ok-pop company claimed that “artists can check the basis for settlements at any time, and they have not brought up any issues with this process over the years”.
“We then explained several times that the artists can view the entirety of the settlement reports […] together with experts such as their legal representative or an accountant and can review them in detail at any time,” SM Leisure added. It additionally claimed that the three EXO members’ authorized consultant didn’t categorical an intent to view the stories, whereas alleging that he “also did not promise to not provide the reports to external parties”.
“Provision of copies of our artists’ settlement reports to external parties is an issue that we cannot simply turn a blind eye to,” SM Leisure stated. “For example, if the various detailed activities provided as basis for settlement are leaked to external parties, the other EXO members excluding the three artists can receive unjust harm.”
SM Leisure additionally refuted claims that it had used its “power” so as to prolong the contacts of Baekhyun, Xiumin and Chen. SM Leisure alleged that seven members of EXO had signed new contracts with the company in December 2022 “with the help of a lawyer from a large law firm”, following a yr and a half dialogue.
“During the process of discussing the contract renewals […] we went through the process of coordinating each party’s opinions,” SM Leisure stated in its assertion. “For about a month from mid-November 2022, amendments were exchanged with the member’s legal representatives a total of eight times, and we completed our discussions as we went over in detail each and every word in the exclusive contracts.”
“Despite this situation, the artists’ newly appointed representative suddenly changed their position and insisted that they cannot accept that the new exclusive contracts are valid,” SM Leisure added. On this phase, the company additionally talked about the profitable contract renewals of different teams below the corporate, together with Women’ Technology, TVXQ and Tremendous Junior.
The Ok-pop company ended its assertion saying that its “biggest goal is to protect EXO […] and to protect all of our agency’s artists”. It added: “To this end, we will take strong action against external forces that try to delude artists with unreasonable financial temptations, flattery, and groundless rumours to collapse the team itself.”
