Seoul court rules NewJeans' contracts with label Ador valid

On Thursday (Oct 30), the Seoul Central District Court ruled that the contracts of K-pop group NewJeans with South Korean label Ador are valid.

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On Thursday (Oct 30), the Seoul Central District Court ruled that the contracts of K-pop group NewJeans with South Korean label Ador, with whom they are currently embroiled in a legal battle with, are still valid.

During the verdict, the presiding judge said: “It is difficult to regard Ador as having violated the exclusive contract merely by dismissing former CEO Min Hee-jin.”

In April last year, Min's former employer, entertainment conglomerate Hybe, filed a criminal complaint for breach of trust against her, claiming that she and her executives had planned to take full control of Ador, a label that Hybe owned 80 per cent of the shares of at the time.

She denied the allegations, stating that it would have been impossible for her to usurp management control with her shares, which amounted to 18 per cent then.

In August, Min was removed from her position as Ador CEO. However, she was still a producer for NewJeans and a part of Ador's board of directors. She eventually resigned from her director position in November and left the label.

In July this year, it was announced that Min was cleared of breach of trust charges and that the case would not be brought to prosecution.

According to South Korean media reports, the five members of NewJeans – Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein – were not in attendance for Thursday's ruling.

In November last year, the members of NewJeans unilaterally ended their contracts with Ador, citing workplace harassment and other issues. The group then proceeded to carry out numerous independent activities.

In January of this year, Ador applied for an injunction against NewJeans, which would prohibit the members of the quintet from signing advertising contracts independently.

On Mar 21, the Seoul Central District Court granted this injunction.

Days later, following the group's performance at the pop culture convention ComplexCon Hong Kong, the members of NewJeans declared that the group would go on a hiatus to respect the court's ruling.

In May, the Seoul Central District Court announced that it had accepted Ador's application for an indirect compulsory enforcement – a type of penalty imposed for failing to comply with a court order – against NewJeans.

As such, the court declared that each NewJeans member will have to pay 1 billion won (US$727,180) for every unauthorised activity performed thereafter.

In response to Thursday's verdict, the legal team of the NewJeans members said that they would appeal the ruling.

"While the members respect the court’s decision, they maintain that, given the current situation in which the relationship of trust with Ador has been completely destroyed, it is impossible to return to Ador and continue normal entertainment activities.

"As such, the members will immediately appeal this ruling and they hope that the court will carefully and comprehensively review the facts and the legal grounds for the termination of the exclusive contract to reach a fair and wise judgement."

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