SM Entertainment, a K-pop agency, has responded to the allegations made by the attorney for EXO members Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Chen. The group informed the business earlier today that they would be ending their contracts as a result of "mistreatment and unfair contract terms."
In response to allegations made by their agency SM Entertainment, including the alleged involvement of a "third party" in their contract termination decision, EXO members Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Chen have released a new statement. The three singers have given their agency warnings that they wish to terminate their "slave contracts." Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Chen maintained that they will remain a part of the K-pop trio even if they break away from SM Entertainment in their latest statement, which also denied any outside influence in the situation.
The three EXO members claimed in their initial statement, through their legal counsel and attorney Lee Jae-hak, that SM Entertainment had persistently refused to give the three K-pop celebrities financial information for the previous 12 to 13 years. The agency, according to Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Chen, "perpetrated extremely unjust use of power" to extend the artists' contracts to more than 17 years.
SM Entertainment asserted that other forces had a say in the situation. According to Soompi, the lawyer for the K-pop stars, Lee Jae Hak, referred to the same in a statement and dubbed it "false information merely aiming to mislead public opinion."
“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 Entertainment added. It also claimed that the three EXO members’ legal representative did not express an intent to view the reports, while 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 Entertainment said. “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.”
Additionally, SM Entertainment denied allegations that it had expanded Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Chen's contacts by using its "power." Following a year and a half of debate, SM Entertainment said that seven members of EXO had signed new contracts with the organization in December 2022 "with the help of a lawyer from a large law firm".
Other significant issues in the case, as alleged by the artist against the agency, were also addressed in the statement. Additionally, it was made clear that, even if their contracts with the agency were to expire, Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Chen would still participate in EXO activities alongside the other members.
The three EXO members asked for "clear and transparent records" of their profits in addition to asking for their contract to be terminated. However, SM Entertainment is said to have objected. Under SM Entertainment, EXO made their debut in 2012. Xiumin, Suho, Lay, Baekhyun, Chen, Chanyeol, D.O., Kai, and Sehun are the other nine members of the group.
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