Yoo Jae Suk Loses His Case Against Former Agency to Receive Unpaid Appearance Fees

On November 3, the Seoul Central District Court revealed that the case brought forward by Yoo Jae Suk and comedian Kim Yong Man against their former agency STOM E&F and their creditor SKM Investment for the confirmation of deposit claims has been dismissed.

Yoo Jae Suk had signed on with STOM E&F back in 2005 and with his appearances on MBC’s “Infinite Challenge” among other shows had earned around 600 million won (approximately $530,131) in 2010 alone.

However, STOM E&F faced provisional seizure of 80 billion won (approximately $70,731,200) in May of 2010 which prevented Yoo Jae Suk from receiving his appearance fee.

At that point, Yoo Jae Suk terminated his contract with the agency and requested the broadcasting stations to pay him directly. But unclear as to whom they needed to pay the money, the stations decided to leave it up to the court.

The court claims, “The payment for entertainment work is collected by the agency and then distributed.” Thus, they did not accept Yoo Jae Suk’s claim that entertainers themselves have the right to collect payment from broadcasting stations directly. The court added, “The act of consignment is impossible since broadcasting appearance isn’t something that can be done by another individual. Also, since it’s not a subcontracting deal, the party is not held liable to make the payment directly to the talent.”

What are your thoughts on the court’s decision? Do you think Yoo Jae Suk should’ve won his case?

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