Singer Lee Hi acknowledged and apologised for operating a single-person agency without registration of the pop culture and arts planning business.
Lee Hi’s agency Duover said on the 27th, “Since Lee Hi has been working under an exclusive contract with the company, he was not aware that a private business operator needed to register a separate pop culture and arts planning business in the process,” adding, “We have completed the related curriculum belatedly and recently completed the registration process.”
“This was caused by ignorance and negligence of both the company and the artist,” she said. “We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this, and in the future, we will more thoroughly check related laws and procedures so that the same thing does not happen again.”
According to field news on the 27th, it was belatedly confirmed that the one-man agency “8O8 High Recordings” founded by Lee Hi had been operating illegally without registering with the competent authorities for more than five years. The current CEO of the company is Lee Hi, and the in-house director is in the form of a family company that his sister, identified only by her surname Lee, is in charge of.
Article 26 of the Popular Culture and Arts Industry Development Act stipulates that if you intend to do a popular culture and arts planning business, you must register with the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In order to register, you must meet requirements such as having more than two years of experience in the field of popular culture and arts planning or completing a related curriculum prescribed by the Ordinance of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. If you violate this and operate an unregistered agency, you can be sentenced to up to two years in prison or fined up to 20 million won.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism set the “day registration guidance period” until the end of last year and encouraged voluntary registration to address the problem of unregistered agencies prevalent in the industry. Lee Hi reportedly completed registration of the pop culture and arts planning business at the Mapo-gu Office in charge on the 21st, after the end of the guidance period.
Since the registration was completed only after the Japanese registration guidance period proposed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism at the end of last year, Lee Hi will not be able to avoid administrative measures by the authorities.
Meanwhile, numerous people, including Sung Si-kyung, Hwang Jung-eum, Song Ga-in, Yoo Ah-in, Lee Ha-nee, and Ock Joo-hyun, were on the cutting board last year for not registering with the agency.
On the 22nd, Yongsan Police Station in Seoul said it would send singer CL without detention on charges of violating the Popular Culture and Arts Industry Development Act. A corporation operated by CL was also sent.
CL is accused of operating a corporation without going through the registration process for the pop culture and arts planning business. CL has been running the company as a representative for about five years without going through a registration process since the establishment of a single-person agency “Very Cherry” in 2020.
The police cleared Kang of charges. However, the head of the agency and the corporation sent him to the prosecution. However, the police judged that Kang was not involved in the management of the agency.
