Do kpop companies really "sabotage" groups?

Yes, look at Chuu and Loona.

was gonna say no but thinking of loona and wjsn...it might not be that far of a stretch tbh

Yeah, SNSD's 10th anniversary in 2017 is one of the biggest and most blatant. SM went out of their way to actively punish them right in the middle of a CB for all members not renewing.

Quote from MissBehave

I see fans claim it all the time. How valid are those complaints? Got any examples of it happening?

• When SM kicked out members of EXO by shitting on the contracts till they begun to get sued by the members
• When 8D Creative all of a suddon made Love leave OnlyOneOf and than without saying anything put Mill on hiatus right after that and when Mill came back he had his hair shaved off which is in many Asian countries a sign of that someone apologizes for something, which is (as I saw on JPop and KPop idols before) often done when they need to apologize for things they actually don't have to apologize for (a popular case for example was in 2013 as a Japanese girl from AKB48 shaved her head of to apologize to her company when they wanted to kick her out of the group after she was meeting (not dating) a male person and her company accused her as liar when she said she doesn't dated him, she was super sad and cried). People were super confused back than with Mill and cause he had shaved his hair off since fans also didn't exactly got to know why Love had left before and so everyone said the thing with Mill's hiatus was just fishy, and some people even made it out of his facial expressions since people said he looked a small bit dead inside to them with a mix of when you are sad but don't cry.
• Back in 2017 the boygroup MADTOWN who was around only 2 years old at that time disbanded cause their former aswell as their new company screwed them over. I remember that one member was in UNB at that time after he won on the survival shoe THE UNI+ and I remember how Rain who hosted the show felt sad as he heard the company who made himself big had closed down and that the boys were super struggling because Rain was once in the same company as them. At the end as this dude was in UNB he got a phonecall from his members who only said "We just want to let you know that we decided to disband" cause the new company also fucked them over.
• 24K had a lot potentional when the OG members debuted. However the company failed so hardcore and is still running new boys under the name of 24K years after the OG members all left the company. I remember back in 2017 when they apeared on a survival show they said it was like a cry for help since they had no idea what else to do and well it didn't worked out for them. The boys had it really shit who were the OG members. I remember that one of them said they had no apartment, no water, no food, nothing and so some members went back to their parents or friends to even get a place to stay at
• There was a group who debuted and disbanded quickly after because they floped cause the company debuted a row of bullies and menaged to get the victim of the bullies kicked out of the company and than the boy went to a mental health clinic, many people were super mad at the company for letting this shit slide trought and were also pissed how the company asked the victim if he could take back that he had sued the company ... wtf
• NU'EST got totally screwed over by Pledis and even when NU'EST got more popular after they had been on Produce Pledis still menaged to fuck up and the thanks for that was getting NU'EST disbanded on their 10th anniversary which even made the boys confused too since they had no idea themself that they would disband on that special time
• Entire TS Entertainment and all the shit they had done to literally everyone

they definitely do. they'll blacklist idols, put out negative articles to damage their image and reputation, not pay them or give them work but hold them hostage with contracts, who knows what else

i think a lot of fans will complain about "sabotage" when they mean like, bad outfits for a comeback or not having comebacks often enough, but that's not actual sabotage

there's also yg who fell in love with his wife when she was 13 and intentionally put less effort into her group when she debuted as an idol so the group would fail and he could scoop her up.

f(x), loona, weki meki, clc, lightsum, pristin, and gugudan

All discarded, placed on the back burner for more famous groups, set up to fail (some), and other just pawns in a game that has never and will never never play in their favor.

f(x), clc, and lightsum were debuted as a replacement incase of failure of their other groups (snsd, 4mintue a long with pentagon, and gidle during soojin's scandal), and when they didn't fail, these groups were placed in the dungeon, given little to nothing, and the companies went on pretending these groups didn't even exist

weki meki, were given literally nothing because their company is in favor of Astro

gugudan and pristin were all left in the dark by their companies and forced out of their dorms for little to no reason. Sure maybe gugudan weren't the top gg or anything but Jellyfish Entertainment haven't kicked out their nugu bg. Pristin were competeing with big names like Twice and Blackpink during their debut yet after their second comeback and subunit (both successful) they were silenced, pushed away, and forced to terminate their contracts.

loona are facing legal repercussions due to the poor management and sabotage of their companies.

I also wanted to talk about fanatics originally but their case is sexual exploitation and negligence specifically.

I know a lot of people don't consider negligence as form of sabotage but it is directly harming these groups when these companies usually have enough to support them. There is no reason a group like Pristin and f(x) should've disbanded. CLC weren't even flopping that hard, cube were just too dumb and didn't (and still don't) know how to market their groups. When you put a up and coming group on a hiatus for a whole year or more, it is direct sabotage to the group's potential career.

✨LOOΠΔ & Blockberry Creative✨

no other words needed

everything is a means to and ends no?

the ends is more profit to the money and if sabotaging the group does that (because of trainee debts and whatnot) then sure why wouldn't company do that if the benefits from doing it > costs of doing it

YGE does, he sabotaged SWi.T, his own group just so his future wife, Lee Eun Ju, would rely on him.

He arguably did the same with 2Ne1, where after years no-one but authorities knew about the medics Park Bom was "importing" until near the end of 2Ne1's contract where it was leaked. Not to mention Minzy's contract ending where YGE basically blamed her for the disbandment.

I think companies care about the brand and long term success of the company. So for example if slowing down the promo and quality content for a veteran act will move attention to its newer groups they’ll absolutely do that. Success of the company matters. Not of the individual act of itself.