SM Entertainment houses some of the biggest K-pop artistes such as TVXQ! and Girls’ Generation, but the talent agency recently became embroiled in several lawsuits due to the unfair labor contracts and plagiarism issues.
Last year, Kris and Luhan ceased their activities as members of EXO-M as they chose to nullify their contracts with the talent agency. Luhan filed a lawsuit citing an “invalid contract” while Kris filed it due to an apparent disagreement between himself and the agency. Both Chinese members are represented by the same law firm, Hankyul.
Soon after they filed their lawsuits, the two decided to venture into the acting industry and continued to pursue their individual careers in China as actors. Kris will be seen next in the upcoming Valentine’s Day release, “Somewhere Only We Know” while Luhan is busy promoting “Miss Granny“. However, since both of them weren’t able to reach a settlement to confirm the validity of their lawsuits against SM Entertainment, the agency revealed through a press release that legal actions will be taken to stop them from their working celebrity activities in China.
In response to the press release, Luhan’s legal representative is said to have had an exclusive interview with both Chinese media outlet Sohu and Sina. Luhan’s legal reps apparently told Sohu that they had not receive any formal statement from the Korean agency.
The lawyer also said:
SM Entertainment pressed legal charges and issued a statement, but we only found out through reports. Both sides showed willingness to negotiate during the proceedings in Korean court, but the sudden development of this event surprised us.
We don’t know the full details with regards to the statement that entered into Shanghai court, but if it has anything to do with the exclusive contract, the jurisdiction is in Korea not Shanghai. The court case we began in Korea is also about the nullification of said contract. We will be issuing an official statement and try to find out more about SM’s statment as well.
After failing to reach an agreement in their 2nd mediation last month, both parties are set to meet on February 6th at Seoul’s courts to commence their 3rd mediation appointment. Luhan reps further said, “We are trying to negotiate terms to come to an agreement with SM. We will keep trying to come to an agreement with SM.”
However, when TV Report approached Luhan’s reps regarding their interviews with Chinese media, the lawyers denied the reports and stated that they didn’t do any interviews with a Chinese media. They said, “We are not doing interviews with regards to Luhan at the moment, I don’t know about any interview with a Chinese media.”
Kris’ representatives have yet to respond to the recent actions of SM Entertainment and it is unclear whether or not the interviews with Luhan’s reps are legit.
What do you think about the lawyers’ statement? Do you think someone is lying? Share your thoughts about the lawsuit in the comment box below.
(Source: 1, 2, 3 / Image source)
