The conflict between Soulshop Entertainment and Megan Lee has finally reached its end.
Korean media portal OSEN released the news on March 20th that Soulshop Entertainment has lost the lawsuit while an official from the entertainment company said,“The court took the fact that the contract was five years and the profit split 5:5 into Megan Lee’s favor and took her hand over ours on the final verdict. This means that the verdict was made without taking into consideration what the norm is in the entertainment industry. We will be appealing the case again or the matter will have to move on to a higher court.”
Soulshop Entertainment stated that five year contracts are not considers as “long term” contracts. They said that a one or two year contract in the Korean music industry is rare, considering the time that is spent on training and the money that is invested in the artist.
The agency said, “Megan Lee signed in July 2012 and debuted in April 2014 as a rookie. Considering the fact that she was new to the field, her training was short as well. If a contract is limited to 1~2 years no company will be able to take in trainees to debut them. I understand the decision the court has made but this verdict seems to not have taken into consideration the fact that the dispute is within the entertainment field. It seems the court simply took the side of who was in a weaker position. Also they said 5:5 profit sharing was a problem. However, when a company has to invest in a new artist and 5:5 profit sharing is said to be unfair this also makes it impossible for companies to discover new artists. If we are to base the entertainment contracts on the decision the court has made, the entire industry will have to change. We may face a mass outbreak of lawsuits.”
Megan Lee filed for a contract nullification at the Seoul Central District Court on November 10, 2014, stating an unfair contract on her behalf. She later explained that the reason for the lawsuit was due to “continuous chain of events” which involved Kim Tae Woo’s mother-in-law and his wife Kim Ae Ri.
Source: OSEN
