Lawsuit: DBSK vs SM Entertainment

DBSK Hero, Micky and Xiah’s official stand about their discord with SM

Idol group Dong Bang Shin Ki’s members Micky YooChun, Hero JaeJoong and Xiah JunSu finally revealed their stand about their problems with SM Entertainment.

Their representative revealed through news media on 3rd August, “The 5 years period after they debuted, the 3 of them felt that their minds and their bodies are tired having to follow the tight schedule that the company put up unilaterally.”


They continued, “Kim JunSu, Kim JaeJoong and Park YooChun has been following SM’s instruments from the beginning of 2004 till now, going back and forth promoting in Korea, Japan, China etc, and in a year except for 1 week they get only 3-4 hours of sleep a day to do our schedule.”

Also, “In the process the health of the 3 members are very much deteriorated, they are also suffering from mental fatigue, and as time went SM continue to established on their own decision for Dong Bang Shin Ki to advance into other countries. In the end the 3 members felt that as compared to be fulfilling their dreams to be singers, they are used more as a tool by the compared to earn profits, and they wish to use each of the members to also go into other entertainers’ activities.”

The 3 members’ representative also added, “It is a 13 years contract but in reality it is a lifetime contract. With the exclusive rights clause in the contract, the 13 years also include the time the members are serving their military service, hence it will go for more than 15 years. And now it has not even been near to 10 years since the group’s debut, hence it seems like the contract will last until the members’ retirement from the entertainment zone. The penalty for retracting the exclusive right clause is 3 times the investment cost and 2 times the lost in earnings. They also asked about the penalty of cancelling the whole contract but it will involve several hundred billions KRW of penalty, hence in reality there is no way out but to be tied down to SM because of the contract.”

Also, “The members did not receive the right treatment even from SM. Without getting any contract fees, the initial contract was that if their album sells more than 500K copies, each member will get about 10 million KRW (~$8,000 USD) during the next album release. If they sell less than 500K copies of album, they will get nothing.”***

The 3 members had went down to Seoul Central District Court to file for a retractile of their exclusive belonging rights with SM Entertainment on 31st July, causing an outrage of speculations about the group’s disbanding and also problems between the members and SM.

Credit: sookyeong@wordpress

1. 5 years after their debut, the three members are physically and emotionally fatigued from the company’s one-sided orders.
-Kim Junsu, Kim Jaejoong, and Park Yoochun debuted as DBSK members in 2004. Since then, they have followed SM’s orders to go from Korea, Japan, to China. With the exception of 1 week for year, they were only able to get 3-4 hours of sleep and had to go through schedules. During this period, the health of the three members deteriorated and they were mentally fatigued. However, SM pushed DBSK into foreign markets which resulted in excess performance plans. In result, the three members felt that they would not be able to achieve their dreams in SM and would be just tools for the company’s profit. They wished to participate in entertainment activities according to their individual visions.

2.In reality, 13 years of contract meant a contract for life.
-According to the contract, the period of the contract was 13 years, but when including military service, would exceed over 15 years. This meant that there was still 10 years to go with the current contract and in reality, meant until retirement. In the instance that the contract would be breached, the penalty would be to pay 3 times the total investment, 2 times the lost earnings. Even in the case that the contract is canceled when agreed by both parties, the members were required to pay penalty. Therefore, due to the millions of wons required by the contract upon cancellation, contract cancellation was realistically impossible and the members had no choice but to remain in SM

3. The members did not receive adequate treatment from SM for their efforts.
-Despite all this, during the duration of their contract, they did not receive adequate treatment from SM. They did not receive any earnest money from the contract, and according to the initial contract for album profit allotment clause, only when an album sold 500,000 copies, could they get $10,000 per member for the next album, and when albums sold less than 500,000 copies, the members could not receive any earnings.*** This clause was revised in 2009, February 6th, but even after the revision, earnings that each member would receive for the album sales were 0.4%-1% depending on the album sales.

4. The members requested for corrections to the unreasonable contract, but SM did not listen to the member’s opinions.
-In this situation, the three members pointed out the unreasonable parts in the contract and asked multiple times to be freed from the contract’s boundary and work according to their visions but in response to the current situation, SM discussed issues dealing with their investments in the makeup company, not responding to the true nature of the problem. Despite all this, the three members wanted to find a way to deal with the situation and requested for a conference where both parties could find a solution but SM did not respond. During this process, by the attitudes shown by SM, the three members realized that there was no point in hoping for a settlement and resorted to the court of justice to execute a solution for the problems.

5. The investment in makeup company does not have any relation to entertainment activities and does not have any relation to the applied provisional disposition. The nature of this incident is the contract.
-SM stated that the disposition was submitted due to the investment but the members’ investments in the makeup company do not have anything to do with the provisional disposition. The makeup company SM discussed planned to export to China, and the three members invested as stockholders, having no relation with their entertainment activities. Just by common sense, it does not make sense that the members would give up all their efforts and results as DBSK in order to invest $100,000 to the company. The core of the problems presented by the members is contract injustice, and SM’s attempts to blur the true problems by bring up the investments must stop now.

6. The members do not want DBSK to break up and just hope to free themselves from contract restraints.
-Many fans are worried that the disposition would result in DBSK’s break up. However, this disposition was not intended for DBSK to end. Right now, due to differences in how the members wish to overcome problems, only 3 members have participated in the lawsuit. However, there is no problems within the members and they all have the same wishes to keep their promises with their fans to always remain as one. After this incident, if contract injustice is corrected and the members are given conditions to freely perform their music, they feel that everyone can be one and can stand in front of fans as one.

7. We will take this as an opportunity to mature.
-The members realize how much DBSK fans must be surprised and be disappointed about this incident and are distressed and sorry. If the fans could think of this as a jump to bigger dreams and continue to cheer, the members promise to respond to the fans as better musicians.

Credit: j'adore@soompi.com