SM Entertainment files lawsuit against EXO’s Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin over royalty fees

K-pop agency SM Entertainment has filed a lawsuit against EXO singers Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin – also known as EXO-CBX – over the idols’ royalty fees.

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According to a report by Korea JoongAng Daily, SM Entertainment filed the civil suit on June 12 against EXO’s Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin to demand that they pay a 10 per cent royalty free that the trio have allegedly been evading for two months.

“CBX’s nonsensical actions cannot be tolerated anymore,” SM Entertainment said of the trio’s alleged actions, per the news outlet. The K-pop agency also claims that the EXO singer had agreed to the 10 per cent royalty fee in a contract that was signed in June 2023, following a months-long dispute.

INB100, the agency that manages the activities of Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin outside of EXO, alleged in a press conference that SM Entertainment had made “unfair” demands of the trio’s individual earnings.

The trio’s representatives claimed that SM Entertainment had “defaulted on the 5.5 per cent album distribution fee it promised”, and as such, the EXO trio were not obliged to pay the 10 per cent royalty fee.

Despite the ongoing row between EXO-CBX and SM Entertainment, both sides have maintained that the trio will continue to carry out their activities as members of EXO, per Soompi.

SM Entertainment also confirmed that EXO are planning to release new music, adding that “there has been no further discussion about changes to the plan”.

In a recent interview with NME, Baekhyun teased new EXO music, saying that “during winter, there will be something that’s coming up”. The boyband’s last release was the album ‘Exist’, released in July 2023.

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