Aotter Statement January 17, 2025

Statement

1. This statement is issued upon the commission of Aotter Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "Aotter").
2. Aotter (representative: Xie Lun) has commissioned us to state: "

(1) Although Ms. Chen Qin-yin has published an apology statement on her personal social media as required by the court settlement record, she has made comments under that post mentioning related content, which our company considers inconsistent. We hereby make the following clarification:

1. When Ms. Chen joined the company, she signed both an "employment contract for editorial duties" and an agency contract for on-screen personnel with our company.

—Although Ms. Chen resigned on February 28, 2022, what was terminated with Aotter was the employment contract. The agency contract was valid until September 2, 2027, and the agency contract stipulated that neither party could unilaterally terminate or dissolve the contract during the contract period. It was also agreed that during the contract validity period, Ms. Chen could not privately negotiate with other companies for entertainment activities, performances, endorsements, etc. without our company's consent. Therefore, when Ms. Chen resigned on February 28, 2022, the agency contract was still in effect.

2. However, after Ms. Chen's resignation in March 2022, she sent a certified letter to our firm claiming unconditional termination of both the employment contract and agency contract, which did not comply with the agency contract terms. According to our company's past practice, in the employment and resignation handover documents and procedures, our company would determine whether to enforce the non-compete clause based on supervisory judgment. At that time, our personnel also explained to Ms. Chen that we would enforce the non-compete clause while paying non-compete compensation, all of which are on record.
3. To respect the spirit of the contract, our company continuously paid non-compete compensation starting from March 7, 2022. However, until November 2023, we discovered that Ms. Chen attended many 3C technology commercial events, violating the non-compete provisions in the agency contract. Our company then stopped paying the non-compete compensation and demanded Ms. Chen return the payments.

However, Ms. Chen claimed on one hand that she didn't know the company wanted to sign an agency contract, while on the other hand refusing to voluntarily return the non-compete compensation she had already received, which is clearly contradictory.

4. Due to Ms. Chen's aforementioned violations of the agency contract, our company filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for the contractual penalty of NT$5 million. However, that amount was set based on the longer contract validity period. The actual claim amount was calculated based on reasonable penalty amounts itemized according to the violation work items during the breach period. Later, because Ms. Chen expressed her financial difficulties, after our comprehensive consideration, we agreed to settle on the condition that Ms. Chen publicly acknowledge on social media the workplace pressure she caused to some colleagues during her employment and the workplace bullying incidents, and we waived the claim for penalty compensation. Therefore, our company was willing to make concessions, which led to Ms. Chen's apology statement publication to complete the settlement.
5. In other words, if Ms. Chen truly believed she was in the right and that our company's claims were unreasonable, she could have chosen not to settle, or even refused to post an apology, return the non-compete compensation, or continue with the litigation.

However, Ms. Chen ultimately agreed to return the non-compete compensation and post an apology, which clearly shows that she indeed caused workplace pressure for colleagues and violated the agency contract. Yet afterward, she made statements that obscured the focus, which truly disappoints our company.

(2) To avoid the spread of false information on social media and to return to the original intention of the settlement—to let this matter end here and for everyone to move on without further incidents—we specially commission this law firm to make the following statement to set the record straight."

3. We hereby make the above statement on behalf of our client for your reference.

Winkler Partners