EXO’s Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin (hereinafter referred to as CBX) claimed appeasement and pressure during the re-signing process with SM Entertainment
On the afternoon of June 10th, CBX’s agency INB100 held an urgent press conference to accuse SM Entertainment of “deceptive agreement”. Present at the conference were INB100’s parent company chairman Cha Ga-won, INB100 CEO Kim Dong-jun and INB100 and CBX’s legal representative, Attorney Lee Jae-hak from Law Firm Lin.
During the press conference, Attorney Lee Jae-hak discussed the re-signing process that took place in late 2022. He said, “SM demanded our artists (CBX) to sign a re-signing agreement that would extend their existing exclusive contracts for an additional five years once the current contracts expired. The three artists signed their exclusive contracts in June 2010 and May 2011, respectively, and were already in the 12th to 13th year of their contracts. SM demanded a re-signing that would extend the existing contracts by 5 years, totaling 17~18 years.”
He continued, “Baekhyun asked for contract terms adjustments 8 times, but SM hardly accepted any changes. SM pressured and coaxed him by saying, ‘If you sign the contract, the other members will get higher contract fees’ and ‘Since the re-signing hasn’t been activated yet, it can be canceled at any time in advance.’ At the time, Baekhyun was serving in the military.”
Attorney Lee added, “Baekhyun wanted to continue EXO activities smoothly. Even though more than a year remained on his exclusive contract, and despite the re-signing agreement containing an unfair clause that allowed for automatic extension if a specified number of albums were not released, he felt compelled to sign due to his desire to protect EXO and fans.“
Earlier that day, INB100 announced the urgent press conference, stating, “SM has ignored the negotiation details that were the premise of the agreement and demanded ‘10% of the revenue from the artists’ personal activities’ from INB100, which represents CBX. INB100 sent a certification of contents regarding the unfairness, but SM Entertainment has not responded for over 2 months.”
