A bill requiring entertainment companies to disclose their revenue settlement records to their affiliated celebrities at least once a year has passed the National Assembly’s standing committee.

The bill also prohibits agencies from forcing underage celebrities to undergo excessive appearance management or work more than seven hours a day.

On the 20th, the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee passed a revision bill to the “Act on the Development of the Popular Culture and Arts Industry” with the goal of preventing celebrities from suffering damages due to their agency’s opaque accounting practices, similar to the “Lee Seung-gi incident.”

The bill requires agencies to disclose compensation-related information to their celebrities as a mandatory obligation, so that they do not suffer losses from their agency’s opaque accounting practices.

When drafting contracts for popular culture and arts services, the bill also requires the inclusion of specific settlement methods and cost deduction details, and the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism will reflect the results of investigations related to contract practices when revising and providing standardized contracts for popular culture and arts professionals.

The revision bill also strengthened the protection of the rights of underage celebrities, including reducing the maximum working hours for them.

The working hour limits for underage celebrities, which were 35 hours per week for those under 15 years old and 40 hours per week for those over 15 years old, have been strengthened to 25 hours and 6 hours per day for those under 12 years old, 30 hours and 7 hours per day for those aged 12-15, and 35 hours and 7 hours per day for those over 15 years old.

Acts that infringe on the learning rights of underage celebrities, such as school absenteeism or dropping out, as well as actions that pose a risk to their health and safety, such as excessive appearance management, physical abuse, verbal abuse, and sexual harassment, are also prohibited.

The revision bill also requires popular culture and arts business operators to designate a youth protection officer to ensure the protection of the rights of underage celebrities.

In the same committee, a revision bill to the Copyright Act was also passed, expanding the types of copyrighted works that can be replicated, distributed, and transmitted for visually impaired individuals to include all works, including videos, instead of just literary works.