5 Seconds of Summer have been sued for AUD$2.5 million (£1.86m) by their former management team.
The rock band – which comprises of Luke Hemmings, 25, Callum Hood, 25, Ashton Irwin, 27, and Michael Clifford, 26 – are being taken to court after allegedly refusing to pay YM&U agreed commissions for “multiple lucrative deals”.
Billboard reports: “5SOS refused to pay YM&U commissions the firm is owed for multiple lucrative deals it negotiated on behalf of the group, including a $10 million single-album recording contract with BMG and a $1.5 million merchandising extension with Bravado International Group.”
According to documents obtained by the media outlet, all four members of the band are listed as defendants, as well as their current manager Benjamin Evans, who is alleged to have encouraged their band in their behaviour, with the documents claiming that he “acted with fraud, malice, or oppression.”
The documents said: “Evans and 5SOS’s other advisors believed that, by refusing to pay plaintiff anything for its months of services, 5SOS could pressure plaintiff to substantially discount what 5SOS owed.
The complaint alleged that on Sept. 27, shortly before the band’s new deal with BMG was complete, 5 Seconds of Summer told YM&U that they intended to end their management agreement with the company while agreeing to pay 15 per cent of their £4.1 million advance from BMG, but a letter sent to YM&U by the group’s attorneys later claimed that the band would not be paying them for several “multiple lucrative deals it negotiated on behalf of the group.”
The document added: “The only reason given was 5SOS’s attorney’s frivolous assertion that the timing of 5SOS’s termination of plaintiff somehow entitled 5SOS to refuse to pay plaintiff for the valuable services they had induced plaintiff to provide”