On 15 January 2008, Wu Yi Fan went alone to this foreign country to become an SM trainee in order to fulfill his dreams of a career as an artiste. After signing a contract with SM, for a prolonged period of time, SM time and time again delayed plans of his scheduled debut date. In 2012, Wu Yi Fan debuted. In January 2013 when he discovered that a recording part which he had been practicing for over ten days had suddenly been cancelled, upon asking the manager for the reason behind his, SM strongly requested that he be removed from EXO for several months, and other entertainment-related developments were deliberately stopped. In the end after much negotiations was he able to return to the group, but following after he continued to encounter much injustice, oppression, limitation of resources and such. When he returned, due to the discrimination he faced given by the manager, this caused much tension and with that, unreasonable, rigorous long term work duties with highly insufficient rest, which have drastically impacted his health. Since July 2013 he has been receiving injections and intravenous drips to keep up with work pace, till January 2014 when he returned to China for a medical checkup which indicated signs of myocarditis. Despite this situation, SM was unable to arrange for Wu Yi Fan to go for any treatment and recuperation. At the same time, SM was unfair in their distribution of income, restricting his current development and preventing future development plans from taking place and such, Wu Yi Fan deeply lost trust in their management methods of artistes.
With regards to the above reasons, Wu Yi Fan had no choice but to file a lawsuit to the Seoul Central District Court on 15 May 2014, requesting the court to recognize that his exclusive contract with SM was invalid. On 14 May 2015, Seoul Central District Court ruled (mandatory ruling-mediation-decision) that other than Korea, SM has to consign all “exclusive management rights” in relation to Wu Yi Fan to a third party designated by him. We believe that the above mandatory ruling is fair and with reason. However despite a year-long mediation, SM still refused the court’s mediation rule of termination of contract and once again resumed the litigation process, deliberately intending to delay Wu Yi Fan’s termination process, further hampering Wu Yi Fan’s personal living schedule and arrangements of rest and work in the entertainment industry.
Wu Yi Fan has always been grateful to SM from the beginning till end, grateful towards all those who have helped him in all ways to develop, henceforth is willing to accept Seoul Central District Court’s ruling, that the future proceedings would be carried out in accordance to the law and subsequently follow up the termination lawsuit with reasonable ruling.
At the same time, as of present Wu Yi Fan has hired a team of professional Chinese and Korean lawyers to manage law related affairs concerning the aforementioned lawsuit, and he will continue fulfilling all of his various scheduled work commitments in China. With regards matters relating to Wu Yi Fan and SM’s termination of contract, before the court’s final decision, Wu Yi Fan himself and his studio will not provide further responses as everything will be dealt with by the lawyers.