The legal representative of EXO Chen, Baekhyun, and Xiumin, has released a 4th statement amid conflict with SM Entertainment.
On the afternoon of June 5th, the legal representative of EXO Chen, Baekhyun, and Xiumin, issued a 4th statement regarding the trio’s ongoing conflict with SM Entertainment.
According to this statement, as of 4PM (KST) on June 5th, Chen, Baekhyun, and Xiumin still haven’t received any documents related to their settlement money from SM Entertainment, unlike SM’s claims to the media.
In addition, during the discussion for contract extension, the 3 members of EXO hired lawyers to review the terms, and discovered various unfair clauses. As a result, they requested for reconciliation, but SM ignored this 8 times. SM also pressured Baekhyun with words, taking advantage of his loyalty to EXO and EXO members.
It was also stated that instead of providing the extension contract to the artists immediately after signing, SM withheld the contract for several days, only giving the members the contract after multiple requests.
SM also promised to pay contract fees for the artists 1 year after the contract was signed, but no money has been received so far. In addition, the agency suddenly tried to enforce contract extension around 1 year prior to the expiration of the previous exclusive contract.
During the “management battle” between SM, Kakao, and HYBE, SM did not issue any notice nor explanation to its artists. As a result, artists can only follow the case through media reports, and feel disrespected, as if they are objects or accessories that can only blindly follow the company’s commands.
Moreover, the members’ rights were severely impacted, with a large amount of profits being unreasonably withdrawn, from production fees to copyrights earnings.
Chen, Baekhyun, and Xiumin’s legal representative also claimed that they have requested for the settlement data 7 times, and emphasized that it is the artists’ basic rights to access this information. However, SM failed to satisfy this extremely basic request.
Finally, via their legal representative, Chen, Baekhyun, and Xiumin sent a message to fans, saying, “If somebody is taking advantage of the memories, love, youth, effort, and passion of EXO members and fans for 11 years, this needs to be changed.”
“We treasure EXO members more than anything else. We have spent half of our lives sharing joys and sorrows with each other. We will never betray the members, and EXO is our first priority in every circumstance”, they stated.
Source: VKR
