Passage of the 'Lee Seung-gi Incident Prevention Act'... Mandatory Annual Provision of Accounting Details

Amendment to the Act on the Development of the Popular Culture and Arts Industry Approved by the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee
Mandatory Provision of Compensation Details Following Artists' Requests

A bill to prevent a ‘second Lee Seung-gi incident,’ where celebrities suffer damages from their agencies due to opaque accounting practices, has been passed.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Park Bo-gyun. [Photo by Yonhap News]

On the 21st, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (hereinafter referred to as MCST) announced that the amendment to the ‘Act on the Development of the Popular Culture and Arts Industry,’ which mandates agencies to provide accounting details and settlement-related information to their affiliated celebrities at least once a year, was approved at the full meeting of the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee on the same day.

The bill became known as the ‘Lee Seung-gi Prevention Act’ after the unfair industry practices were exposed through the settlement dispute between singer Lee Seung-gi and his agency Hook Entertainment at the end of last year.

This amendment was prepared to eliminate unfair practices in the entertainment industry and to protect the rights of popular culture artists who have not been receiving fair compensation for their cultural and artistic creative activities. The MCST explained that it is a key policy to realize the Yoon Suk-yeol administration’s national agenda of ‘establishing a fair industrial ecosystem for the sustainable development of K-content.’

Park Bo-gyun, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said, "This amendment will serve as a stepping stone to abolish the irrational practices behind the development of K-content, which is praised worldwide, and to create an environment where child and adolescent popular culture artists can protect their human rights and pursue their dreams, supporting the Yoon Suk-yeol administration’s pro-vulnerable policy stance."

The amendment includes provisions requiring entertainment agencies to provide accounting details and information about remuneration not only upon request by affiliated artists but also regularly at least once a year.

Additionally, the amendment establishes a legal basis for the MCST Minister to request attendance of related parties, hear statements, and demand submission of materials for investigations into unfair practices, and to reflect the results of actual condition surveys on popular culture and arts service contracts when drafting or revising standard contracts.

Provisions to protect the rights and interests of child and adolescent popular culture artists have also been significantly expanded. Regarding the provision of popular culture and arts services by youth, new specific prohibited acts have been introduced for popular culture and arts business operators, including infringing on the right to education by forcing absences or withdrawals, demanding excessive appearance management, and verbal abuse or physical assault.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.