Lai Kuanlin’s Lawyer Explains In Detail How Cube Entertainment Violated His Exclusive Contract
It was previously reported that Lai Kuanlin, a former member of Wanna One, had requested his exclusive contract with Cube Entertainment to be canceled.
Cube Entertainment later confirmed that Lai Kuanlin expressed his desire to leave the agency, but claimed that he had no right as Cube did not violate any of their contractual agreements.
Lai Kuanlin decided to speak up for the first time by releasing an official statement through his lawyer. Lai Kuanlin explained that Cube Entertainment had sold his promotional rights in China to another agency without his consent.
On July 27, 2017, Lai Kuanlin signed an exclusive contract with Cube Entertainment. Within just a few months, in January 2018, Cube sold Lai Kuanlin’s management rights in China to a third-party agency. Through the transaction, Cube was given a sum that was dozens of times larger than the contract fee given to Lai Kuanlin.
Lai Kuanlin and his parents were not consulted about this at all, so they weren’t able to agree or disagree with the transaction.
— Lai Kuanlin’s Lawyer
He also mentioned how Cube would schedule him for company-run schedules without his consent, which conflicted with his other activities. Due to the scheduling conflicts, Lai Kuanlin’s image was “damaged” in the Chinese broadcast industry.
When Lai Kuanlin asked Cube to discuss the various conflicts, Cube allegedly disregarded Lai Kuanlin’s requests and decided to release the conflict to the public.
Lai Kuanlin and his lawyer have officially filed a lawsuit against Cube Entertainment and will seek justice through “proper legal procedures“.
Lai Kuanlin first debuted with Wanna One after competing in Produce 101 Season 2. He gained a massive fandom and later went onto promote in a unit group with PENTAGON‘s Wooseok. He has been promoting in Korea and China as both an idol and actor.
Read Lai Kuanlin’s official stance by his lawyer below:
Hello.
This is Lawyer Park Sung Woo, who will be representing singer Lai Kuanlin in his legal affairs.
First, Lai Kuanlin wanted to express his apologies for causing inconvenience to his fans and the broadcast and entertainment companies. Cube Entertainment had unilaterally decided to release information to the media.
Lai Kuanlin didn’t want to release the news to the public. He wanted to resolve the conflicts with Cube Entertainment privately within the two parties involved. However, Cube Entertainment refused to discuss the matter and simply released their statement to the press, claiming that it was untrue that they violated the exclusive contract. They also falsely claimed that Lai Kuanlin has been promoting on his own. We decided to release our own official statement in order to set the record straight and reveal the actual truth.
On July 18, 2019, Lai Kuanlin acquired the help of a lawyer and reported to Cube Entertainment that he wants their exclusive contract to be canceled. He also submitted a disposition application to the Seoul Central District Court today, seeking the suspension of their exclusive contract. He decided to take legal action after Cube Entertainment broke their trust by violating their contract.
On July 27, 2017, Lai Kuanlin signed an exclusive contract with Cube Entertainment. Within just a few months, in January 2018, Cube sold Lai Kuanlin’s management rights in China to a third-party agency. Through the transaction, Cube was given a sum that was dozens of times larger than the contract fee given to Lai Kuanlin. Lai Kuanlin and his parents were not consulted about this at all, so they weren’t able to agree or disagree with the transaction.
Lai Kuanlin had finished his Wanna One promotions in January 2019. Once he started promoting in China, he belated discovered news about the contractual transfer in April 2019. Cube Entertainment booked Lai Kuanlin to appear in “U&Cube Festival”, an agency-run event in Japan that took place on March 23, 2019. This caused a conflict with his schedules to film a drama in China. He was in serious talks with the Chinese broadcast but was ultimately unable to participate due to Cube’s event. We later heard that the schedule conflict left a bad impression of Lai Kuanlin to the Chinese broadcast agency. As Lai Kaunlin was looking into what exactly happened, he found out that there was another contract that he didn’t even know about.
He was shocked by the fact that the agency he trusted had sold his rights without his consent or awareness. After much deliberation, Lai Kuanlin and his representatives sent Cube a document with proof that the agency violated their original contract and asked for them to correct the situation. However, Cube simply responded that they did not commit any violations as they had documents that had Lai Kuanlin and his parents’ official stamps. Cube did not implement any of the corrections requested by Lai Kuanlin and also disregarded his requests to discuss the situation.
Lai Kuanlin and his parents have never seen their official stamps on any document and have never consented to stamp such documents. As they never gave Cube Entertainment the right to create stamps using their name in the first place, they felt that their trust was severely broken.
Cube Entertainment didn’t respond or explain the situation to the involved parties. Instead, they sent out a press release with only parts of the truth. Lai Kuanlin’s image was damaged by their actions. Thus, the trust was further broken and Cube Entertainment basically refused to resolve the issue peacefully. We decided to take legal action as we had no other choice.
We believe that the truth will be revealed through the legal process and that the court will rule a fair judgment for Lai Kuanlin. In order to fulfill his commitment to the fans and the broadcast industry, Lai Kuanlin will do his best to complete all of the schedules that were already confirmed before the legal conflict arose. We will resolve this issue through proper legal procedures, and do our best for Lai Kuanlin to return to his fans with a good image as soon as possible.
Thank you.
— Lai Kuanlin’s Lawyer
