K-Pop Company That Leaked Private Information Of Idol Group Will Continue To Be In Charge Of Their Tour
The touring company that risked the safety of the boy group ONF and tried exploiting their fans will continue to organize the rest of the group’s North American tour, according to their agency WM Entertainment.
On July 16, KST, the agency posted a lengthy statement on their social media channels, apologizing to fans over the recent controversy and informing them that ONF’s North American tour will resume as planned.
Hello, This is WM Entertainment.
We would like to share our stance regarding ONF’s North American tour performances.
First of all, we sincerely apologize once again for causing concern to our fans with this matter.
We have decided to proceed with the North American tour as planned for the fans who have been eagerly anticipating this performance.— WM Entertainment
The “concerns” mentioned in WM’s statement refer to the recent controversy of J&B Entertainment, the touring company in charge of ONF’s current tour, leaking private information of the members to the public. An X user outed the company’s illegal activities, which also included leaking ONF’s album spoilers and scamming fans, with screenshots as proof. They also claimed that WM Entertainment was well aware of it but chose to look the other way.
현재 공공연하게 논란이 되고 있는 투어 대행사 J&B의 “소수 인원에게만 혜택이 주어지는 운영 방식”을 포함한 여러 비정상적인 진행 내용, 그리고 이 모든걸 다 알고도 침묵하는 소속사 WM엔터테인먼트에 관한 내용을 공론화합니다. #온앤오프 #ONF #WM엔터테인먼트 #JNB #제이앤비엔터테인먼트
— . (@neugaebi136) July 4, 2024
I am publicly disclosing the details of the controversial tour agency J&B, including their method of giving ‘benefits to a small group of people’, and WM Entertainment, for staying silent regardless of knowing all of this.
Following this revelation, fans started pressuring both companies, demanding accountability, which led to the CEO of J&B Entertainment issuing an apology. Fans, however, were far from satisfied, as WM Entertainment only posted a short notice in Korean regarding the controversy on its official account.
As the backlash continued, WM Entertainment posted a new statement addressing the issue, both in Korean and English. The company announced that while J&B Entertainment will continue to organize ONF’s tour, its CEO will not be involved in customer service. Instead, they will assemble a new team to handle the task.
However, we have determined that changing the event organizer with the limited time remaining until the performances poses a significant challenge.
In this regard, we have requested that Jacky Yoo, the CEO, will not be involved in the customer service and ONF’s North American tour going forward. J&B will establish a new CS team and deploy additional professional staff to ensure the smooth operation of the performances. Moving forward, our agency will do everything possible to ensure the safety of our artists and the smooth progression of the concerts.— WM Entertainment
WM’s statement also mentioned that J&B Entertainment is “currently discussing paying compensation to the artists for the damages caused to their work.”
They also touched upon the demands of fans to blacklist any individual who accessed the private information of the idols from Yoo. WM mentioned that obtaining the list of the names posed legal challenges, and they are undertaking internal reviews to address the situation.
Lastly, regarding the blacklist issue, we have requested the list of names from J&B. However, due to reasons related to violations of the Personal Information Protection Act, we have not received the names of the individuals involved. We are currently undergoing an internal legal review concerning this matter.
Taking this incident as a lesson, we will strengthen our selection criteria for all collaborating companies and make every effort to ensure such issues do not recur.
Thank you.— WM Entertainment
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