Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Following the dispute between SM Entertainment and EXO-CBX going public again the other day, there’s been further news, including dueling lawsuits.
So here I am again, back at it, because half of covering K-pop drama nowadays is playing legal recapper for some godforsaken reason.
Heading back to the legal drama mines after getting a Gyuri interaction: pic.twitter.com/JMETbVuOhm
— Asian Junkie (@asianjunkiecom) June 16, 2024
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Alright, so following SME clearly alleging that tampering was involved in their rebuttal to EXO-CBX’s press conference, INB100 released a statement denying tampering. They claim the allegation doesn’t make sense and characterize what happened as Baekhyun getting advice and then help from people he trusts.
A day later, they also released a statement about the news that the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) were investigating Kakao on suspicion of discriminatory music distributions fees, which was based on Big Planet Made‘s report to the FTC that Kakao used different distribution fees to affiliated companies and subsidiaries than others. They claim the investigation proves it’s an issue, that SME told on themselves by offering them reduced rates, and alleged the practice is a tactic used to make artists renew.
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Okay, now following that, SME announced that they were filing a lawsuit against EXO-CBX to enforce their existing contracts with the company.
EXO-CBX then responded back with a lawsuit of their own over unfair profit distribution, aiming to show that SME’s system is wrong.
The most important thing? That’s basically all there was to it in terms of info.
The EXO-CBX/SME stuff is trending in the right direction, just stick to announcing lawsuits and saying the other side are lying scum and stay away from litigating in public. Based.
— Asian Junkie (@asianjunkiecom) June 16, 2024
They have blessed me by not litigating everything in public after the initial statements at least. Prayers up that continues.
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Legally speaking, we probably don’t have enough detailed information to know how it’ll turn out one way or the other. If I had to guess, I’d say it seems like SME has a leg up due to a lot of EXO-CBX’s arguments appearing more scattershot and hoping something lands. Plus, they’re talking about verbal agreements and stuff, which the court is not gonna care about if SME has signed contracts, so I hope they have things they can prove in the end. Honestly, the FTC stuff is the most interesting thing to come from their side.
That said, it’s hard to root against EXO-CBX even if they did try to pull a fast one on SME … I just honestly don’t care. I acknowledge that ONE HUNDRED/BPM are moving shadily as well, but if EXO-CBX think that’s the better deal then so be it. Sorry, maybe that’s the “wrong” outlook on stuff like this, but major K-pop entertainment companies crying about tampering when they’ve leaned on artists (hey, maybe the dating/scandal news timing and unspoken blacklistings is always coincidental!) for favorable terms and renewals for years is beyond ironic to me. And that’s probably not even a tenth of the fuckery they’ve either gotten away with or received slaps on the wrist for over the decades.
