ANS's Agency Denies Members' Claims + Says That Their Contracts Remain Valid

On August 25, ANS Entertainment released a statement after seven members of the girl group ANS announced that they had terminated their contracts with the agency.

This issue first made the news when ANS member Haena uploaded now-deleted posts on Instagram that appeared to claim that she had been bullied by her fellow members. In their statement, the other ANS members explained that their agency had experienced significant financial problems to the point that the members had no manager, staff, or practice room. They stated that they had had no problems with Haena apart from the fact that they were forced to manage her schooling and scold her for skipping class. The members also implied that the agency might be taking advantage of Haena’s mental health in order to cover up their contract cancellation issues.

The following is ANS Entertainment’s official response to the members’ statement:

To all those who support the girl group “ANS” and have been worried about the issues surrounding the eight members, we apologize for releasing our official statement so late.

ANS Entertainment has never stinted on investing time and effort into supporting the development of ANS, a girl group that was created in our agency’s name to represent K-pop.

After the end of their promotions for “Say My Name,” which received a lot of love at the beginning of this year, the global COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of several events. Despite this situation, the agency was preparing for the group to make a comeback with a mini album.

The members were preparing for this comeback when they said that they could not go in for dance lessons due to frequent injuries. We respected the members’ opinions and delayed the comeback and gave them a period of rest in order to recover their health.

During the rest period, however, we received a certification of contents about their exclusive contract from the members, which could not be less than shocking to us.

It is not true that we violated our exclusive contract with the members in any way. We have thoroughly respected the standard contract for popular culture artists. Furthermore, we will do our best to invest in and support them in future.

In addition, we would like to state that there has been no issue regarding finances and payment, which is so often an issue in the entertainment industry. Just as it states in the standard contract for popular culture artists, the profits are reduced by the amount that was invested in the artist prior to that time and then divided between the agency and the members.

ANS Entertainment requests that the ANS members fulfill the obligations of their exclusive contracts. To other agencies, we warn that the members’ contracts with us remain valid and that to meet with the members and suggest a new contract with them will require us to take civil and criminal action.

When the dispute over the contract broke out, the members and their legal representatives’ one-sided claims about contract violation forced the agency into a position of sacrifice and loss and caused mutual misunderstandings and distrust.

We will do our best to resolve the issues that broke out between Haena and the other seven members, as well as the seven members’ dispute about their exclusive contracts, and release another official statement later.

We ask that people refrain from malicious comments and false rumors on social media and media outlets. In order to prevent misunderstandings and controversies, we strongly request that people refrain from behavior that will defame the name of our agency and artists. Please understand that such continued behavior will result in us taking legal action.

We sincerely apologize for causing concern to those who love ANS. We ask that you continue to love and support them and we hope that we can become each other’s strength and courage.

Thank you.

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