Exo former members Kris (Wu Yifan) and Luhan who previously requested contract termination from agency SM Entertainment to be let out of its group last year reached compulsory mediation and settlement.
SM Entertainment does not seem to back down soon and responds with another lawsuit filed against their current employer companies who hired the two as their models for their respective products while still being legally bound to the agency and Exo.
"As EXO members Luhan and Kris's agency, we've officially planned two lawsuits against a cosmetic company based in Shanghai and a technology company in Beijing that used Luhan, who is arbitrarily promoting in China, as an endorsement model," announces SM representative, starting another line of lawsuits much to the distaste of the two former members.
"The suits were filed at the Beijing People's Court on May 18, 2015. In order to protect the legal interests of SM and EXO, we are adding legal action to the two lawsuits for damages we raised in February in Shanghai and Hong Kong."
Not only the two members allegedly used their Exo popularity status to get into series of castings in movies, advertisements, festivals, and events, but they also caused issues with promotional contracts made with other Korean companies by the label during their time as Exo members, thus violating rules stated in the contract.
SM Entertainment declares these actions as irresponsible, illegal, and immoral, dishonoring the company's credibility, and even causing unnecessary hate towards other Exo-M members who were left. By their unconsented promotions in China, SM Entertainment could not keep the end of the deal it made with the Korean companies who were meant to have Exo endorse the same products as a group.
"Both their acts are morally wrong actions that have hurt the honor of the company and the other members, and they're also obviously illegal acts," SM Entertainment concludes.
If the agency, Wu Yifan, and Luhan ultimately fail to settle the case, the lawsuit will become standard civil proceedings, which means the two artists will be in a great disadvantage as they need to halt their activities in China.
Meanwhile, Wu Yifan's and Luhan's camp spoke in regard to the compulsory settlement.
"We are currently reviewing the compulsory arbitration forwarded to us by the justice department, but we cannot release any detailed information regarding the case," said Kris and Luhan's attorneys.
Technically, Kris (Wu Yifan) and Luhan, although inactive, are still members of Exo and are legally under SM Entertainment. There still exists a minute possibility that they might go back as active members although the fans know it will be a bitter decision for the agency as they have gone this far , and will make the former members who previously wanted to be free extremely unhappy.
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