Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
After Soul Shop Entertainment lost the contract nullification suit to Megan Lee, I knew it wasn’t quite over, but I thought the appeals would be the only thing left. Not so, as now the two sides are arguing about when exactly the contract will be considered nullified.
It seems that although she won the lawsuit against Soul Shop on the grounds that the contract was unfair and therefore void, there is a certain time lapse that occurs before the official nullification during which she does not want to be associated with the company. On the other hand, Soul Shop Entertainment is pushing the point that she is still formally under the label until the nullification officially occurs.
So basically, despite losing in court, Soul Shop want to keep Megan Lee’s activities under their control until this is dead and buried. Understandably, Megan Lee’s side wants an injunction so they can get on with it.
“Putting the injunction in place and the invalidity of the exclusive contract are very valid decisions. The time period of the exclusive contract was set up to last more than five years, but the start of the contract compared to the time the contract was concluded was not separately decided on, so it is difficult to predict the actual time period of the contract.”
Claiming that the management in Soul Shop was excessive when it came to authority, the attorney continued that Soul Shop Entertainment claimed she had a duty to consult the agency when it came to everything from personal affairs and school work to dating, military service, and means of transportation. The attorney then went into, once again, the alleged unfair distribution of the profit.
The attorney concluded with, “It was judged that the contract was invalid and because it was preceded by the injunction against her position [at the agency], we deem it unnecessary to preserve the injunction against her promotions as an entertainer.”
After winning the lawsuit, Megan Lee’s side basically just wants to not be interfered with.
Soul Shop came back with a sort of odd analogy about being robbed or something, which I can only assume is a PR ploy.
On the contrary, Soul Shop’s side said that the contract was done on July, 2012 and her debut was on May, 2014 and that the standard agreement was seven years, so it was hard to say the contract was void just because of the time period. The rep stated, “An agency continues to invest in advance into the celebrity that the agency wants to invest in. Once this is accepted, the so-called eat-and-run celebrities can be mass produced. In this case, through the agency’s investment in advance, another agency could easy scout and give an offer, so there comes a case of getting a free ride. There must be a cancellation fee no matter what,” insisting that the agency invested in the artist and suggesting she took advantage of them with their “eat-and-run” and “free ride” choice of words. Soul Shop said they provided her with many opportunities and even gave her mother receipts for confirmation.
In addition, the contract is claimed to have a statement regarding the freedom of her private life as they could not coerce her in any matter outside of her entertainment promotions and Soul Shop insisted they followed the standard contract regarding repayment of the investment and distribution.
This is confusing logic by Soul Shop. There’s a cancellation fee if she broke the contract without cause, but the contract was declared void in court, so what contract did she violate at this juncture?
Eat and run is not the correct analogy. It’s more like eating peacefully in a restaurant, then having the owner shoot you in the shoulder for no reason, so you flee the restaurant to the police and hospital. Then, after the owner is arrested for attempted murder, the owner complains to the police that you ran out without paying and says he wants to file a lawsuit against you for $1 million in damages.
Unless there’s something else at play here, it’s nonsensical on Soul Shop’s part and the only reason this is happening is to do the SM Entertainment stalling garbage and so they can save face with the Korean public. Well, at least assuming they don’t lose a second dispute to a Korean artist.
