ADOR Files Lawsuit to Keep NewJeans
ADOR wants the attention of the Seoul Central District Court.
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The conflict between K-pop group NewJeans and their label ADOR (and by extension HYBE) has hit critical mass. After NewJeans’s press conference in November, ADOR has responded with court papers.
The slayingest press conference you’ve ever seen
November 28: Hanni, Minji, Haerin, Danielle, and Hyein convened a press conference to announce that they were officially leaving ADOR due to “mistreatment” and “manipulation” by the agency. According to the BBC, Hanni claimed the group has been shunned within the company.
This is the latest salvo in an ongoing battle between former NewJeans producer (and former ADOR CEO) Min Hee-Jin and HYBE chairman Bang Si-hyuk. From HYBE’s perspective, Min tried to do a hostile takeover of ADOR. According to Min, NewJeans was plagiarized and slighted in favor of other HYBE girl groups, and she was retaliated against for protecting her band’s interests. Hanni said NewJeans and their team experienced “mistreatment, not just towards us but also including our staff,” and “deliberate miscommunications and manipulation in multiple areas.”
“This is not the type of work ethic we respect and not one we want to be a part of, and to continue working under a company with no intention of protecting NewJeans would only do us harm,” Hanni said. The band wishes to fulfil their contractual obligations, then go independent with Min. This means they may not be allowed to call themselves NewJeans anymore.
ADOR has responded to the press conference. Per Soompi, the label does not feel NewJeans has grounds to terminate their association with the label. “The exclusive contracts between ADOR and the NewJeans members remain valid. Therefore, we expect them to continue their scheduled activities ahead together with ADOR as they have until now,” their statement read. “We have requested several meetings with the artists, but they were not carried out. We hope that even now, we can open our hearts and have sincere conversations together.”
ADOR will see you in court
December 5: ADOR is doubling down on keeping NewJeans, filing a petition to the Seoul Central District Court to make sure their contracts still stand. “On December 3, we filed a lawsuit with the Seoul Central District Court to legally confirm the validity of our exclusive contracts with our artist NewJeans,” the label said in a statement obtaind by Soompi. “We did not wish for the issue with our artist to be resolved through legal judgment, but this inevitable decision was made to clarify to the artist and various stakeholders that the exclusive contracts between the agency and the artist cannot be lightly terminated based on one-sided claims. Above all, we seek clear judgment from the court to uphold the foundation of the K-pop industry, which has grown based on a healthy trust relationship between artists and agencies, and further, the foundation of the Korean popular culture industry.”
The foundation of the K-pop industry does seem to be a little shaky, with Fromis_9 and Loossemble both declaring to leave their labels shortly after NewJeans had their presser. But hey, it’s not like South Korea has other problems to handle right now. What’s that? Oh.
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