Close Your Eyes Contract Issues

[RussianRoulette]

I'm actually in the middle of typing a news roundup right now but this section got too long so i'm posting it by itself
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Close Your Eyes Contract Issues

This is a huge mess so I will try my best to summarize this the best I can.

The project group Close Your Eyes which was formed through the survival show Project 7 is going through contract issues with two of it's members, Kenshin and Minwook.

Minwook (also known as J-Min) is currently under contract with PocketDol Studio as a member of the kpop group Bae173. Kenshin, who is 17 and from Japan, is also currently under contract with PocketDol Studio as he was already a trainee under them before joining the Project 7 survival show with Minwook.

Since both boys won the survival show and are debuting in Close Your Eyes (CYE), they have a double contract with PocketDol and ENCORE who is the company in charge of CYE.

ENCORE first made an announcement saying they will be taking legal action against PocketDol. Since Minwook is an active member of Bae173 PocketDol said that he has a dual contract and would be promoting with both groups and not be going on hiatus with his Bae173 activities. ENCORE released an announcement saying that their contract clearly stated it any winners of the competition are not allowed to engage in activities outside of the project group so they will be taking legal action for contract violations.

PocketDol then released their own statement. They said they are disheartened by ENCORE's lawsuit and said they did prepare a dual activity contract in advance. They said they didn't send their artists (Minwook and Kenshin) to the competition, the production team for the survival show specifically requested for them to send trainees, so the dual-contract was made in advance prior to them agreeing to join the show. They also said Project 7 did say pre-existing commitments can be honored as long as it's coordinated in advance.

When Minwook and Kenshin won the show and ENCORE sent them a new contract prohibiting dual activities PocketDol refused to sign the contract, but Minwook and Kenshin did still agree to participate in predebut activities for CYE in the meantime.

While Minwook and Kenshin was doing CYE activities, ENCORE blocked all contact between Minwook and Kenshin and their company PocketDol and refused to even disclose their location details. PocketDol tried numerous times to get in contract with them and ensure their safety, especially because Kenshin is legally a minor and PocketDol is his legal guardian in Korea, but ENCORE is still refusing contact so Pocketdol has had to resort to going to the police and filing a missing persons report for them on January 8th.

The police investigation to find out where they are has been a hot mess. When the police went to investigate with ENCORE they claimed they did not have the members and said the members have returned to their parents. When the police contacted their parents and found out they very much were not there, they went back to ENCORE again and ENCORE had to admit they were hiding them in their practice room.

(I also want to shout out that I truly hope the members are ok right now. There hasn't been any confirmation on if the members have been able to get back into contact with Pocketdol yet.)

PocketDol has said they will be disclosing all of the email agreements about the dual contracts to the police and will be proceeding with legal action against ENCORE.
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ENCORE full english statement
PocketDol statement in a news article

I don't follow either group, but fans have advised me that both companies are pretty shady so to please hesitate taking one side over the other because they are both pretty bad. This isn't really a case of PocketDol trying to "save" them from ENCORE, but more of a case of two terrible divorced parents fighting for custody of their kids.

Please expect a news roundup later today
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[Sweetheart]

Pocketdol didn't learn with Chaeyeon in IOI

 

[sm maid]

Pocketdol do not give a single [redacted] about their artists' well being, but if there is one thing they're very good at, is playing foul.. the move of reporting them as missing was an attempt to threaten the company by legally registering that they cut them off, and to tarnish Uncore's reputation with the public, playing the 'minor' card for sympathy AND also playing on the fact that people are already on Uncore's ass in regards of safety of their artists because they don't give them security in airports and artists were getting mobbed and hurt

Now, it's a matter of whether Pocketdol really were offered a dual contract that then got scrapped in the actual debut contract, which is quite beliveable because CYE is so popular Uncore probably thought Pocketdol would be desperate enough to sign whatever they hell they made them to have a member in there... (which would be kinda funny because it's the exact thing Pocketdol did to Junwon)

OR if Pocketdol was just being delusional from the beginning and dual contract was never on the table, which is also possible by the way they have removed minwook's name from all upcoming schedules, must mean their arguments wouldn't hold up in court...

all in all, Pocketdol will just find a way to ruin it for their artists because that's all they know how to do when they get lucky and stumble upon a bit of popularity, they self-sabotage

 

[MlCKEY]

MBK just needs to fold. Don't they have another member of the same group debuting in a different project group too? The plan is really to coordinate between two different project groups and promote their nugu group that will surely never go anywhere at the same time? For what gain? They can change their company name all they want but we all still know who they are and their history. How they keep getting contracts signed. I wonder if the only reason we aren't hearing the same dispute with the other group is because they're managed by Cube who are big enough for Pocketdol to not bully.

 

[sm maid]

MBK just needs to fold. Don't they have another member of the same group debuting in a different project group too? The plan is really to coordinate between two different project groups and promote their nugu group that will surely never go anywhere at the same time? For what gain? They can change their company name all they want but we all still know who they are and their history. How they keep getting contracts signed. I wonder if the only reason we aren't hearing the same dispute with the other group is because they're managed by Cube who are big enough for Pocketdol to not bully.

polarix are not managed by cube, that was just a rumor we don't even know if they have a company or if they signed any debut contract at all, all members are having a vacation rn so pocketdol are making hangyul promote with bae173 as usual

 

[RussianRoulette]

Now, it's a matter of whether Pocketdol really were offered a dual contract that then got scrapped in the actual debut contract, which is quite beliveable because CYE is so popular Uncore probably thought Pocketdol would be desperate enough to sign whatever they hell they made them to have a member in there... (which would be kinda funny because it's the exact thing Pocketdol did to Junwon)

OR if Pocketdol was just being delusional from the beginning and dual contract was never on the table, which is also possible by the way they have removed minwook's name from all upcoming schedules, must mean their arguments wouldn't hold up in court...

Of what I understand from the articles Uncore never offered them a dual contract at all? Pocketdol told Encore they were only willing to sign a dual contract and I think they sent Encore a dual contract? But Encore said they were not willing to do that and the members must be in a solo contract with them and they sent Pocketdol the solo contract. Pocketdol refused to sign the solo contract, I don't think Encore ever signed the dual contract, and the contract negotiations hit a stalemate and nothing was negotiated further.

It also seems Uncore did warn them in advance that any winners must be in a solo contract?

 

[munyuna]

This isn't really a case of PocketDol trying to "save" them from ENCORE

still i wouldnt be surprised if these guys are trying to run away from them..

 

[sm maid]

Of what I understand from the articles Uncore never offered them a dual contract at all? Pocketdol told Encore they were only willing to sign a dual contract and I think they sent Encore a dual contract? But Encore said they were not willing to do that and the members must be in a solo contract with them and they sent Pocketdol the solo contract. Pocketdol refused to sign the solo contract, I don't think Encore ever signed the dual contract, and the contract negotiations hit a stalemate and nothing was negotiated further.

It also seems Uncore did warn them in advance that any winners must be in a solo contract?

the thing is the survival show contract is one thing and the debut group contract is another, pocketdol claims jtbc drafted a dual contract and thats why they accepted to go in the first place, and that uncore switched up on them and decided to make the debut contract exclusive. these kind of switch ups of offering one thing and then taking it back after the group is decided is a common trap within these survival shows and pockdtdol themselves used it against fantasy boys so i don't doubt it happened, but pocketdol also lies so who knows

 

[Chiharu]

which is quite beliveable because CYE is so popular

popular where

 

[RussianRoulette]

popular where

I don’t really follow the newer boy groups but I can vouch they are popular. I think they had a whole overseas pre-debut tour or something?