DBSK lawsuit round up
Lately, there has been many rumors regarding DBSK’s (a.k.a. Dong Bang Shin Gi, TVXQ, Tong Vfang Xien Qi, Tohoshinki) lawsuit. I thought it would be nice to clear up the issue and present a summary to everyone.
- On July 31th, three members – Hero, Micky, and Xiah – submitted an application to court to determine the validity of their contract with SM Entertainment (their record label, manager, etc.).
- Yoon-Ho and Chang-Min are believed to remain with the company. No official statement have been announced under their name.
- After their concert in Thailand, many saw that the members were divided in 3:2 when eating and doing other activities.
- Many believe that three members and the company were in a disagreement with long contract period (13 years), profit dividing policy (rumored to be 7:3 to 9:1 towards SM; SM announced publicly that it was 6:4), and cosmetic company that the three members and their parents operate (some fans claim that the members’ parents only operate couple of stores). This cosmetic company heavily uses the group’s images and name brand without a consent from SM Entertainment and became a hot issue between two groups.
- SM Entertainment have stated that 11 billion won (about $11 million) plus luxury car has been paid to the group. Members have stated that if that money is divided up equally among members and 6 years that they have been working, that amounts to 200 million won (about $200,000) a year per member, which is subpar in Korean standard for top singer.
- Penalty for early termination of the contract is known to be 400 billion won (about $400 million).
- SMTown Live ‘09 concert had been cancelled as a result.
- Many blame the company for ridiculously long and unproportional contract. On the other side, people point out the fact that the members all knew what they were agreeing to when they were signing the contract and the training system that members went through requires money to be pulled from the company’s active artists to pay for people in the training system.
- 1st hearing will start from August 21th.
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