EXO Member Luhan Files Lawsuit To Leave K-Pop Group

South Korean K-pop label SM Entertainment Co. is going through a rough patch.
On Friday, a Chinese member of the label’s boyband EXO filed a lawsuit against SM in a bid to nullify his contract with the company, according to the Seoul Central District Court. A spokesman for the court confirmed the filing but declined to provide further details.
It wasn’t immediately clear why the member, Luhan, was seeking an apparent divorce from the company. He and his legal representative couldn’t be reached for comment.
SM said in a statement that it was “baffled,” by the lawsuit. The label added that it was the midst of working out of Luhan’s next career steps following a request from him to focus more on individual activities. SM said it suspected the involvement of a third party in motivating the action but didn’t say why.
Speculation surfaced recently that Luhan’s relationship with the label may have gone sour following his absence at an EXO concert in Bangkok last month. SM explained the absence at the time by saying he had been suffering from headaches and an unspecific sleep disorder.
The move follows a similar suit filed by another Chinese member from the same group in May. Half of the twelve-member group originate from China or are Chinese-speaking Koreans, a strategy aimed at increasing the appeal of the group in the Chinese market.

Last week, SM’s popular nine-member group, Girls Generation, officially became an eight member team after one of the members, Jessica Jung, was ousted due to disagreements over her business activities in fashion.
Analysts say SM is increasingly battling with the challenges of managing groups with large numbers of singers, as well as increasing desire among artists to more actively decide their own career paths. K-Pop labels create groups with large numbers of members to allow them to more easily deal with the absence of individuals, such as through illness or mandatory military service for men.
Shares of SM—which is listed on the country’s Kosdaq stock-exchange for smaller companies—dropped by the daily limit of 15% on the news of the latest lawsuit, hitting a more-than-one-year-low