Sunday, January 16, 2011

Did a China Court rule CJS is not related to the Cosmetics Company?

I was translating statements by TVXQ members' fathers, but it's taking a lot of time, so meanwhile, I figured I'll clarify about the article that's spread around the internet titled: "China Court: “TVXQ Has Nothing To Do With The Cosmetics Company Promotion”."

This article is a prime example of misleading articles that use only part of the facts to spread the reporter's agenda.

Let's get to the article and see what it says. (The article is in italics.) If you've already seen this article, just skip to the next part where I explain about it.

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SM Entertainment had attributed the main reason for the “TVXQ’s Lawsuit” to be the cosmetics investment business by some of the TVXQ’s members and used this reason as justification to propose a 2.2 billion won in damages from the 3 members.
The declaration that SM Entertainment had submitted to Seoul Central District Court on 14th April claimed that “Some TVXQ members had invested in a cosmetic company which resulted to be the beginning of the conflict. They have used TVXQ’s name and portrait without the company’s consent and that have violated the exclusive contract. However, they denied the effectiveness of the exclusive contract and proposed the disposition for the effectiveness of the termination of the exclusive contract”. During November last year, China Beijing Kowloon Station Century Culture Communication Co. Ltd* (Gao Jian Wen, Representative. Also known as Beijing Kowloon Station Inc.) had used “The fraud of Crebeau which is the collaboration between TVXQ’s 3 members and Korea Cosmetics Company, Wisyaplus had caused their damages” as the reason to apply for legal action for the damages compensation at the District Court. Recently, the cosmetics company, Wisyaplus announced that “Beijing Haidian District People’s Court rejected the Beijing Kowloon Station Inc’s claims” and revealed the China Court’s arbitration decision documents.
According to the open verdict, the court had rejected all the arbitration applications from the applicant (Beijing Kowloon Station Inc.) and the applicant will bear all the costs for the arbitration (38,470 yuan = 5,635 USD). TVXQ’s 3 members has nothing to do with the cosmetics company promotion and this was ultimately confirmed by the China Court. And SM Entertainment have been using the photos of the 3 members attending the investment seminars to suspect if the 3 members had directly or indirectly carry out promotional activities.
On the other hand, the cosmetic company’s representative, President Kang Suk-won had expressed towards the accusation of SM Entertainment attributing the main cause of the TVXQ’s lawsuit with the members’ cosmetics business that “The police investigation has already shown that the reason behind the TVXQ’s lawsuit has nothing to do with the cosmetics. However, SM Entertainment once again entangled with it. Therefore, our company will propose a reputation damage lawsuit again for the third time”.
President Kang Suk-won claimed that “The reasons why TVXQ’s 3 members had filed a lawsuit towards SM Entertainment are because of the unfair contractual relationship and unjust distribution of income distribution. This fact has been ruling in the injunction application and it was confirmed. However, such behaviour seems to have become a kind of inertia for SM Entertainment in order to rescue its company reputation”.
Wisyaplus had already filed the reputation damage and impede business lawsuit towards SM Entertainment twice in August and November last year. Seoul Gangnam Police Department investigation ended in February and make the decision of without detention and transfer investigation towards SM Entertainment representative, Kim Youngmin. At that point of time, the police had already made a judgement that “The lawsuit of ending the long term exclusive contracts requested by TVXQ’s 3 members had nothing to do with the cosmetics investment”.
*(T/N: This is the rough translation of the company name as I can’t find the English name for it)

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Here's the summary of the article above.

The first part of the article talks about the SM's claim that the cosmetics company is the cause of TVXQ's trouble. Then without even a break in the paragraph, the article shifts toward the lawsuit between "Wishop Plus" (Wisyaplus in the article, mother company of Crebeau, the company the CJS is involved with) and another Chinese company, Beijing Kowloon Station Inc. The Kowloon Company sued Wishop Plus for fraud related to the promotion activities of TVXQ (the 3 members), but the China Court has rejected the lawsuit. The reporter uses this fact to prove that TVXQ is not related to the cosmetics company's promotion. Then the article shifts to the interview of the president of Wishop Plus to emphasize his company is not related to the lawsuit between the 3 members and SM.

Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? A Chinese company sued Wishop Plus for reasons related to the 3 members' promotional activities, but the court rejected it; therefore, the 3 members must not be related to the Cosmetics company. But the article omits a critical part of the China court's decision. Here's the scanned copy of the decision. The article above references this document too, so you've probably seen it. I don't know Chinese, so I had to rely on my friends to translate it, and I verified with other Chinese friends too. I ask the readers to do the same and verify the content of the document below with someone who knows Chinese.


In summary, the court dropped the case because the warranty period specified in the contract between the two companies has expired, and Wishop Plus is relieved of any responsibilities from the contract because the lawsuit was filed after the warranty period is over. The China court didn't rule on TVXQ's relationship with the cosmetics company at all, but it just dropped the case on technicality and the laws related to the contract itself, not because of TVXQ's relationship with the company or lack thereof. The author of the article cleverly mixed this ruling with the SM and CJS's case, and reached a conclusion the way he see fits.

The part about the president of Wishop Plus will be covered in the future when I talk about the company, and also his statement regarding the injunction will be covered when I post about the lawsuits. The injunction didn't rule the contract was unfair, period. Again, there wouldn't be a pending lawsuit if the contract were ruled unfair at that time.

The article also mentions about the lawsuit filed by Wishop Plus against SM for defamation and interfering with the business. I'll talk about the result of that lawsuit on another post. They totally shot themselves in the foot with that one.

The above article was translated from the original article written by a Korean reporter named "Kim Bum Tae". Remember that name because I am going to make a post about him too. Here's the link to the original article from the Korean newspaper.
http://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/view/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0001364989

Geez, after I post one article, it leads to 3 more articles that I need to write. This whole situation is full of drama and twists.

18 comments:

  1. ... i swear that Chinese company is the most complicated part ever ... i have to read it twice ...
    too must twist information that i think even if fans know about this site, they'll probably give up going though all this n blind them self with what other source feeds them ... i see some fans know about this site but don't even give a try, they saw the title, claim it was Homin bias and leave ...

    thanks you for all your effort ... it's must be tiring for you

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  2. @ kendalove

    I am aware that some people won't read my posts, but that's too be expected so I'm not concerned, but I'm sure there are many more who now sees what's really going on. :)

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  3. Finally the update. Thanks precious. You are really precious...

    @ kendalove: even though they read it i doubt they ll digest it. :) Oh well...

    I still remember how confusing when I read the article in the first time. It's so twisted tht I doubt it was written by professional reporter. =.=;;;

    The article also mentions about the lawsuit filed by Wishop Plus against SM for defamation and interfering with the business. I'll talk about the result of that lawsuit on another post. They totally shot themselves in the foot with that one.

    I'm curious abt this one, since I ve been staying too long in a fansite tht provides 'false' articles, I never knew abt the results...

    Once again. Thanks precious. I ll be waiting ur next update :)

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  4. All very interesting... Are you going to translate the court hearings and about the final decision coming up when you have the time? I would love to read through those, too. Thanks for doing this all for us!!

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  5. @ ayoepan

    This article was originally written by a Korean reporter, but there are so many reporters in Korea especially on the internet that are not qualified, or completely biased, you really need to know how to pick out "facts" from the "opinions". This article was definitely written to mislead the readers.

    @ robiechick47

    I am planning on translating everything. It's going to take a long time because there are so many legal terms, and it's complicated.

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  6. I have to say thank you very much Precious again for taking the time and effort to translate all these. Your blog is the best english resource for the lawsuit material, I hope more people can take time to read through the stuff in here and wake up soon. I'm so happy to have someone like you doing these translations and justify for homin. They have been suffer too much in the past year, I am sad everytime I think of it.

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  7. @ sinful09

    Thank you. Words of encouragement like yours keeps me going. :)

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  8. Hi Precious,

    I happen to understand chinese, my understanding is same as what your friends have translated. The court stressed that, it does not matter whether the CLAIM is valid or not but due to the warranty date had expired the case was dropped. As you have stated, the case dismissed due to technicality issue, it does not means CJS did not make promise to appear in Crebeau promotion as per agreement with that chinese company.

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  9. @precious Thank you once again! *handing ginseng*

    @karenten also thanks for your confirmation ^^

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  10. hello.. thank you for your hard work!

    I fear that Sm may lose this case and Homin's reputation will be tarnished because SM already lost to Hangeng.

    In my personal opinion i think he sued Sm because he wants to be more famous in china and hoard lots of money for himself. he may have been backed by someone bigger because lawsuits generally require tons of money. he's and jyj's
    excuse was the so called "Slave Contract". and i don't believe that it. why wait for them to be super famous before they sue. tsk tsk.

    is there any similarity of the JYJ case to Hangeng's case?

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  11. Hi Precious,

    Thank you for your hard work !!!
    I am a Chinese, surely I can read and understand Chinese very well. But I am not a law student and English is not my first language, I am afraid my understanding may be wrong due to my poor English. So, I asked my friend who is a law student to explain this with both Chinese and English version to me. He said his understanding is same as your friends translated. haha.. Now, this issue is becoming much interesting....Can't wait for your coming posts...

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  12. @ karenteh & Kitty

    Thank you for the confirmation.

    @katherinerosellemanaois

    Each cases are handled differently, and the circumstances are different. I understand why Hangeng won that case, but I think SM has a pretty good chance to win this one.

    There are similarities, but there are differences too. TVXQ's contract has much better profit distribution than Hangeng's. Then there are dual contract issue, Avex testimony and the cosmetics business, so the outcome of this lawsuit may turn out differently than Hangeng's. We'll know more about the case soon after the next trial session

    @ adrenalinss
    I need that ginseng... LOL

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  13. Hi, I'm still don't understand what's the difference between Hangeng & TVXQ case aside all the baggage that JYJ bring. Is the contract so much different? Do you mind to explain it in one article maybe?

    I can't think Hangeng is greedy since I don't think he made the same amount as Suju/JYJ. I really believe that he really couldn't take his situations anymore (assuming he isn't lying).

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  14. @ Freya87

    I was going to write an article about Hangeng's case, but decided not to because I do not have enough information about it.
    It looks like both contracts are pretty much the same except for the profit distribution according to the court judgment, but I do not have access to his full contract so I can't say for sure either way. I may post about it when I get more info, but I am not going to research about it actively because my hands are already full with the CJS's case. Hope you understand. One thing I can say for sure is the result of Hangeng's case does not guarantee the result of CJS's case.

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  15. Hi Precious

    May I know where did you get the scanned copy of the decision? I havent finish all of your articles in this blog but so far you have provided sources for all the documents except this. I followed the link to the original Korean newspaper website but I can only see the "first page/cover page" of the decision. So would you mind stating the source?

    Btw I do really want to thank you for all your efforts in finding the original documents and spending time to translate them in full. And, the Roadmap to the Truth is so helpful! Very well-organized. Thanks a lot for that. =)

    Once again, thank you Precious!

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  16. @ yanyun

    I don't know the exact source for that scan, but there are many articles out there that uses that scan to claim the China court proved Crebeau is not related. Here's one: CLICK HERE

    Since the purpose of my article was to debunk those claims, it didn't matter for me to verify this particular source. If the source is invalid, then their claim is false. If the source is valid, then their claim is still false. See how it works? :)

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  17. @ Precious

    I see..hahaha really. Either way their claim is false.

    Thanks for your reply. =)

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  18. this is really awesome stuff, and it's nice to have people like you take the time to be open about this controversy and pick it apart to help others understand the truth, and be able to see both sides. i don't think i would have ever been able to determine what happened myself without your help, and translations. language is the biggest barrier in all of this so it's nice to have a source that gives me details, instead of assumptions or heavily biased info from other places

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