The long dispute ended with ADOR's victory. The court ruled that the exclusive contract between NewJeans and ADOR is valid.
On the morning of the 30th, during the sentencing hearing for ADOR's suit to confirm the validity of the exclusive contract against the NewJeans members, held before Civil Division 41 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Jeong Hoe-il), the court sided with ADOR.
The court said that it is difficult to view ADOR as having violated the exclusive contract solely because former ADOR representative Min Hee-jin was dismissed, and found that Min, rather than seeking to protect NewJeans, waged a public campaign for independence.
The court also rejected Hanni's claim about the 'ignore them' remark. The court said that the submitted evidence was insufficient to recognize that Hanni heard remarks from an ILLIT manager that would infringe on her personal rights, such as 'ignore them'.
The court added that ADOR requested that HYBE check the related CCTV footage immediately after the issue was raised, and since the CCTV footage did not record on-site audio, even if the scene was captured on the footage it likely would not have recorded the ILLIT manager's remarks, and in view of this ADOR had taken sufficient measures to verify the facts Hanni had alleged.
Earlier, NewJeans notified ADOR in November last year that it was terminating the contract, saying ADOR had not fulfilled its contractual obligations, and began independent activities, and ADOR ultimately filed a lawsuit in December asking the court to confirm that the exclusive contract was valid, marking the start of a full-fledged dispute.
ADOR also filed for a provisional injunction to prohibit NewJeans' independent activities until the main suit was concluded, and the court sided with ADOR at the time, issuing an indirect enforcement order that NewJeans would have to pay 1 billion won per member for each activity if they acted without ADOR's consent.
Following the court's ruling, NewJeans announced the end of their activities. The court twice recommended mediation to both sides before the first-instance verdict, but the parties' positions did not narrow. Ultimately, with the first-instance verdict delivered and the court siding with ADOR, NewJeans lost on all counts in the trial.
[Photo] OSEN DB
[OSEN]