EXO’s Chen, Baekhyun, and Xiumin lose sixth round in legal battle against SM Entertainment

Group EXO sub-unit comprising members Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin — collectively known as ChenBaekXi — has now faced defeat in six separate legal or administrative disputes with SM Entertainment, according to publicly released documents.

Court rulings, police decisions, and notices from the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) consistently found “no evidence” of SM engaging in illegal or deceptive practices, undermining ChenBaekXi’s bid to invalidate their exclusive contract.

In one recent decision, the Seoul Eastern District Court criticised ChenBaekXi’s request for document disclosure as “a means of psychologically pressuring SM and contrary to the provisional nature of such injunctions.” The high court and the Supreme Court upheld these rulings, leaving ChenBaekXi with no judicial relief.

The legal conflict began in June 2023, when ChenBaekXi alleged they had been induced into an unfair long-term contract and demanded termination of their deal with SM. That June, both sides signed the “6·18 Agreement,” which affirmed the validity of the existing contract but segmented activities: full EXO group work under SM, while ChenBaekXi’s unit/solo activities would proceed under their own label, INB100. They also agreed to SM receiving 10% of ChenBaekXi’s personal-activity revenue.

After ChenBaekXi failed to remit this percentage, SM filed a lawsuit in June 2024 for contract enforcement. ChenBaekXi counter-sued, claiming misrepresentation, but the police decided not to indict, and the prosecutor’s office later dismissed the case due to insufficient evidence. They also sought document submissions covering 13 years of accounting, but courts found their request overly broad and dismissed it.

ChenBaekXi had also filed complaints with MCST (claiming SM failed to disclose accounting records) and KFTC (claiming unfair contract and subsidy violations), but both agencies found no actionable wrongdoing by SM.

With all six major procedural attempts having concluded unfavourably, ChenBaekXi’s legal strategy appears to have reached a decisive impasse.