[Lawsuit] All SM Artists Are Under The Same Contract‏

In relation to 3 TVXQ members, Junsu, Jaejoong, and Yoochun who filed injunction application to suspend exclusive clause contract, Seoul Court has been collecting all contracts of other singers under SM Entertainment and miraculously, their contract with the agency is completely similar with TVXQ.

SM artists’ contract mostly last for a long period (averagely 10 years), unfair income distribution (50,000,000 won is paid only if the album sold more than 500,000 copies), and penalty termination (3 times of initial investment and 2 times of loss). Many SM idol stars have been in the same shoes as TVXQ for exclusive contract clause.

District Court (first level court) and High Court (second level court) has come to the same conclusion, that the agreement in contract is unfair thus labeled it as “invalid”. However, Supreme Court’s (third level) adjudication has not yet to come. The artist can be said to win the case only if the Supreme Court has agreed to the two court’s adjudication, else it’s not proceed.

CF model Yoo Minho (25) in 2006 had a discord against SM related to exclusive contract as well. Therefore TVXQ’s case in not the first case of an artist having court battle against SM. Even the Yoo Minho’s contract is likely similar with TVXQ contract, which makes it more cliche. Minho’s starting contract period was also close as TVXQ’s, January 3, 2003 (TVXQ is June 30, 2003).

Yoo Minho – SM court battle lasted for 1 year and 6 months in Yoo Minho’s winning with some adjustment clauses, yet she dropped from SM, while the agency influenced the PD of her show to shut down the TV show since she’s no longer worked for SM regardless the good ratings it got.

SM seems to use a standard form in each of its contract therefore it appears that other singes under SM such as Super Junior and SNSD have signed the same contract as TVXQ.

In addition, TVXQ members requested to SEJONG lawfirm–3 members legal representative–through an e-mail on August 5th “Until the trial date is confirmed, please do not reveal anything about our stand, to avoid more court motions.”

Source: sportsseoul + ejungblog
Summarized by: sharingyoochun@wordpress