EXO members Chen, Baekhyun, and Xiumin have dropped a new statement on their legal battle with SM Entertainment, refuting the agency's current claims.
Here's what they said.
EXO-CBX Refutes SM Entertainment's Claims in Ongoing Legal Dispute
On June 5, EXO Chen, Baekhyun, and Xiumin released a new statement refuting SM Entertainment's claims.
The legal dispute started on May 31, when EXO-CBX notified SM Entertainment of exclusive contract termination due to overdue payments and unfair contract extensions. Following this, Chen, Baekhyun, and Xiumin released the basis for their exclusive contract termination.
On June 5, the legal representative of EXO-CBX announced they have filed a complaint to the Fair Trade Commission against SM Entertainment on June 4. According to their statement, the reason for filing is due to "abuse of superior bargaining."
This was trailed by an official statement from SM Entertainment who replied with their decision. In response to SM's claims, Chen, Baekhyun, and Xiumin refuted the claims with a new statement thought their legal representative.
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The statement began:
"This is lawyer Lee Jae Hak of LIN law firm, who will be representing EXO members Baekhyun (Byun Baek Hyun), Xiumin (Kim Min Seok), and Chen (Kim Jong Dae).
On June 4, 2023, we have filed a complaint to the Fair Trade Commission against SM Entertainment for 'abuse of superior bargaining position.' SM has also responded through an official press release made on June 5.
Regarding this, we will refute each claim they made one by one. Furthermore, the three artists would like to express in detail on the current situation."
Each of the numbered factual claims are main key points of the official statement. It describes specific details of EXO-CBX's rebuttal against SM, followed by their personal viewpoints on the ongoing issue.
The first three key points on the statement wrote:
1. Tao is a former EXO member, which was a different case in the first place. Therefore, it's not valid to conclude that FTC's past ruling, SM's corrective order complaints, and our new report are incorrect because of that case.
2. Unlike SM's statement to provide a copies of settlement reports, our layer and artists haven't received such documents yet.
3. Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Chen would like to explain previous cases in detail.
The following third key point relayed their contract renewal, unfair content and procedures, SM's unwillingness to disclose agency matters, and revenue infringement. They also shared their open thoughts to Eris regarding the legal dispute.
On third point, the statement also claimed members received their contract renewals from SM in December 2022, with the aim to extend pre-existing contracts for five years, totalling their stay for 17 to 18 years.
Members have requested coordination eight times, but SM Entertainment refused to accept the appeal. They were also informed that if an individual doesn't undergo a renewal, all remaining members or EXO as a whole would have difficulties.
The statement recalled Baekhyun's experience,"'Baekhyun, you have to sign this so other members can receive this amount of contract deposit.'"
What's your take on the matter?
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