Just days after a company established to release solo music by band members of K-pop group EXO declared “war” against the stars’ longtime label and management agency SM Entertainment over a contract dispute, the K-pop giant has filed a lawsuit against the trio. As reported by the Korea JoongAng Daily , SM filed a civil suit on Wednesday (June 12) against Chen , Baekhyun and Xiumin — who are also known as the trio EXO-CBX — demanding payment of a 10% intellectual property royalty fee it claims the stars have been evading for two months. According to SM, the singers agreed to pay the fee in a contract signed last year as part of an agreement that allowed them to pursue their solo endeavors outside of SM — and pay a discounted distribution fee for their solo music distributed by SM’s new majority shareholder Kakao — while continuing group activities as EXO and EXO-CBX under the K-pop giant.
In a Monday (June 10) press conference held by representatives for INB100 — the newly established company Baekhyun founded in 2023 that also signed Chen and Xiumin for their respective solo careers — Cha Ga-won , the president and majority shareholder of INB100’s holding company One Hundred, accused SM of imposing a 10% intellectual property royalty fee for the members’ stage names, as well as the EXO and EXO-CBX names, in exchange for the distribution fee discount for their solo endeavors. However, INB100 representatives maintain that SM has failed to deliver its end .