Amid concerns about the contract of NCT, SM Entertainment confirmed that NCT’s contract won’t expire this year.
On July 17th, an SM Entertainment official explained, “When NCT signed their contracts, they considered factors such as military enlistment and overseas activities, so the contract duration was longer than usual.”
They further stated, “Although the duration varies for each member, no members’ contracts are expiring this year. All contracts will begin to expire after next year.”
Initially, there were concerns in the entertainment industry that the contracts of NCT members Taeil, Taeyong, Doyoung, Ten, Jaehyun, and Mark would expire in April, while that of Yuta, Winwin, and Haechan would expire in July. Meanwhile, Renjun, Jeno, Jaemin, Chenle, and Jisung’s contracts would expire in August, potentially impacting SM Entertainment’s stock price.
It seems that although exclusive contracts cannot exceed a maximum of 7 years according to the Fair Trade Commission, there are provisions that allow separate agreements for long-term overseas activities and extensions for periods such as military service, pregnancy, childbirth, childcare, and graduate school enrollment.
EXO, for example, signed a ten-year contract with SM in consideration of overseas activities, and the courts have recognized its validity
Meanwhile, NCT Dream, a unit of NCT, is set to make a comeback on July 17th with the full-length album “ISTJ”. They are currently considered the company’s most crucial pipeline, with pre-orders exceeding 4 million copies.
Source: Daum
