For some reason EU voice actors had to agree to not participate in public events or not get contract renewals

[Jord]

European voice actors for DB had a choice; renew their contract for Daima and indefinitely be restricted from participating in public events.

Some of the Italian actors refused and stepped down. Massive respect for them.
They've commented about it:

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DdL_WLKu4-R/

Translation from https://x.com/venixys/status/2099121937280561448

The Italian Voice Actors of Goku and Vegeta Reveal Toei Animation’s Controversial Clause

Gianluca Iacono ( Vegeta VA) and Claudio Moneta (Goku VA) have released a video explaining once and for all why they are not part of the Italian dub of Dragon Ball Daima.

The two actors first wanted to clear up some of the rumors that had been circulating online. Their absence had nothing to do with an artistic decision. In fact, both had originally been contacted to return as Goku and Vegeta.

Money was not the issue either. They firmly denied claims that they had asked for unusually high fees, explaining that the compensation offered was in line with normal industry standards and was never a point of disagreement.

The real problem was an NDA sent by Toei Animation.

Confidentiality agreements are nothing unusual in the industry. Voice actors are often required not to reveal story details, scripts, footage, or other material before a project is officially released. According to Iacono and Moneta, however, this particular agreement included a much broader restriction.

During the video, Iacono reads the clause directly:

“The counterparty further agrees that they shall not participate in any public event, regardless of its connection to the series, including, but not limited to, conventions, trade shows, fan events, or industry panels.”

In other words, the clause appeared to prevent them from taking part in public events even when those events had absolutely nothing to do with Dragon Ball.

For Iacono and Moneta, that was the real issue.

They felt the restriction was disproportionate and, more importantly, that accepting it could set a dangerous precedent for voice actors in general. Their concern became even greater because the clause apparently did not include an expiration date or any clearly defined time limit. As written, it could potentially remain in effect indefinitely, affecting not only their personal freedom but also a normal part of their professional work, such as attending conventions, fan events, or industry panels.

Rather than refusing the project outright, the two actors asked for clarification. They tried to open a discussion with Toei Animation in the hope of understanding the clause better or finding a way to revise its wording.

However, according to them, no one ever got back to them.

They were not given the opportunity to discuss or modify the condition. Instead, the message they received was simple: either sign the agreement as it was, or they would be replaced.

[dbgtFO]

I'm shocked you are the one to post this!
But great topic!

Toei are really aiming for 1st place in dystopian corporate practices, huh

What are their real objective with this?
Replace all non english dubbing with in house ai dubbing, controlled by Toei themselves?
Then eventually in the not so distant future replace english voice actors too??

[Jord]

You could be right with all your guesses. I feel that for now the US dub is too big, but if they had the chance, TOEI would apply this to them as well. The answer is usually "money". I don't feel any European VA has given the DB some kind of bad PR. Heck, we've had jailbirds in the US dub who still got hired so that can't be it.

Perhaps it's a way to enforce some sort of exclusivity. A DB VA wouldn't be able to appear at cons, or even at events to promote other projects. So that would create a massive power imbalance as it would make the VA more dependent on TOEI. I don't know if the VA have many other projects going besides DB (I would hope so) but if I wanted an actor/VA that couldn't promote my project in public, I would be less inclined to hire that person.

I still feel that offering a new contract with a pay cut would be the more logical step for TOEI though.

[dbgtFO]

Spoiler:

You could be right with all your guesses. I feel that for now the US dub is too big, but if they had the chance, TOEI would apply this to them as well. The answer is usually "money". I don't feel any European VA has given the DB some kind of bad PR. Heck, we've had jailbirds in the US dub who still got hired so that can't be it.

Perhaps it's a way to enforce some sort of exclusivity. A DB VA wouldn't be able to appear at cons, or even at events to promote other projects. So that would create a massive power imbalance as it would make the VA more dependent on TOEI. I don't know if the VA have many other projects going besides DB (I would hope so) but if I wanted an actor/VA that couldn't promote my project in public, I would be less inclined to hire that person.

Good points, actually very good points.
Probably all of that factors into it.

I still feel that offering a new contract with a pay cut would be the more logical step for TOEI though.

EU has a bunch of regulations regarding fair payments and change of contracts, so I believe it wouldn't be easy to try and force through a pay cut for EU voice actors and so instead they concoted this travesty.

[PhantomSaiyan]

Baffling situation if I'm being honest.
That clause is ridiculous lol A lot of voice actor's income comes from public appearances, cons etc enforcing this no public appearence move is straight up a dick move.
And for what, more money? Control? That's fucking dystopian man

[L3anD3RStar]

You could be right with all your guesses. I feel that for now the US dub is too big, but if they had the chance, TOEI would apply this to them as well. The answer is usually "money". I don't feel any European VA has given the DB some kind of bad PR. Heck, we've had jailbirds in the US dub who still got hired so that can't be it.

Perhaps it's a way to enforce some sort of exclusivity. A DB VA wouldn't be able to appear at cons, or even at events to promote other projects. So that would create a massive power imbalance as it would make the VA more dependent on TOEI. I don't know if the VA have many other projects going besides DB (I would hope so) but if I wanted an actor/VA that couldn't promote my project in public, I would be less inclined to hire that person.

I still feel that offering a new contract with a pay cut would be the more logical step for TOEI though.

I hate how plausible this is. With more and more executives making their careers off of “lowering costs” rather then actually delivering quality products people want to buy, it just gets more and more plausible by the day.

Sure sign of late stage capitalism - you can’t sell any more, so you have to sell worse products for cheaper no matter what that does to the quality

God I wish there was something we could do to help the European actors they dont deserve this sheeeee

[L3anD3RStar]

Translation from https://x.com/venixys/status/2099121937280561448

They were not given the opportunity to discuss or modify the condition. Instead, the message they received was simple: either sign the agreement as it was, or they would be replaced.
[/i]

FOR WHAT IT IS WORTH

I think this clause is exceptionally self-defeating. Because freed from these clauses, the OLD actors are gonna be redoubling their public appearances and raising their stars even higher. And the new actors won’t get a chance to grow their own fanbases because they won’t be able to do publicity for their own projects.

Really, what kind of media company wants to forbid its actors from doing press for their projects?? I get they are probably bitter for the same reasons the music industry HATED that they couldn’t take a cut of a musician’s merch sales, so they could give them .0005 cents per stream but they couldn’t stand between them and that ten dollar profit per t-shirt.

So if they can’t have that money, nobody can have the money, nobody can promote the thing, let’s just make less money and write it off taxes or something.

Capitalism is really broken when the guys in charge make more money by not selling things.

[Jord]

Another thing is how the move to streaming really diminished the residuals voice actors get. With DVD and such, there was still a fairly steady flow of income. That's why tons of big VA's start podcasts or online courses. Cons and autographs and such are a fair part of their income as well. Even the really big ones have to do this.

Now, of course DB still has physical media releases but that will slowly change as well. Not to mention that those local dubs have a smaller release in general.