Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin’s side claims “Baekhyun’s Requested Contract Term Adjustments and SM’s Response During Re-signing Negotiations”

On June 10th, INB100, the agency representing CBX, held an urgent press conference in the afternoon to accuse SM Entertainment of “deceptive agreement”. The conference was attended by INB100’s parent company chairman, Cha Ga-won, CEO Kim Dong-jun, and Attorney Lee Jae-hak from Law Firm Lin, who serves as the legal representative for INB100 and CBX.

During the press conference, Attorney Lee Jae-hak addressed the re-signing negotiations that occurred in late 2022. He explained that SM had requested for their artists CBX to sign a re-signing agreement, which would extend their current exclusive contracts for an additional five years beyond their expiration date. The three artists had originally signed their exclusive contracts in June 2010 and May 2011, putting them in the 12th and 13th year of their contracts. According to Lee, SM had requested for a re-signing that would extend the contracts for a total of 17 to 18 years.

During negotiations for his contract, Baekhyun made 8 requests for adjustments, but SM was reluctant to make any changes. They attempted to pressure and persuade him by promising higher contract fees for the other members and emphasizing the possibility of cancelling the re-signing at any time. This took place while Baekhyun was serving in the military.

Attorney Lee stated that Baekhyun’s main priority was to ensure the smooth continuation of EXO’s activities. Despite the presence of an unfair clause in the re-signing agreement that would automatically extend his contract if a certain number of albums were not released, Baekhyun, who still had over a year left on his exclusive contract, felt the need to sign it in order to safeguard the interests of EXO and their fans.

Earlier in the day, INB100 called for an urgent press conference to address their concerns. They stated that SM had disregarded the negotiation terms that were agreed upon and had demanded a 10% share of the revenue from the personal activities of CBX, which is represented by INB100. INB100 had sent a certification of contents regarding this unfair demand, but SM Entertainment has failed to respond for more than 2 months.