“2 members even have criminal records…” Seven-member girl group faces disbandment crisis because of their agency
The seven-member girl group “GWSN” (Miya, Seokyoung, Seoryoung, Anne, Minju, Soso, Lena) won the first trial in the lawsuit to terminate their exclusive contract with the agency.
According to the legal community on Jan 22nd, the 28th Civil Division of the Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by 7 GWSN members against their agency The Wave Music to confirm the non-existence of their exclusive contract on Jan 12th.
GWSN is a multinational girl group consisting of Korean, Taiwanese and Japanese members. They debuted in 2018. Afterwards, as Kiwi Media went through corporate rehabilitation procedures, they moved to their current agency The Wave Music in July 2020 under an agreement.
According to GWSN’s claim in the lawsuit, the agency had not paid the rent since February 2020, so all members were evicted from their accommodation. In July of the same year, the practice room was cleared out, and all the staff and managers left the agency.
In particular, Japanese member Miya and Taiwanese member Soso reportedly paid fines and even had criminal records as the agency neglected visa work for them.
The most recent post on GWSN’s SNS (Twitter, Instagram) is about Chuseok greetings on Sep 10th last year. The last album activity is the mini album “THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOON” released on May 26th, 2021.
GWSN members claimed, “Since the last album activity in June 2021, the plaintiffs have been neglected to a level where they cannot carry out entertainment activities. The exclusive contract completely lost its effect just by the breakdown of the trust relationship due to the violation of the obligation to provide management and settlement data, which is a major obligation under the exclusive contract.“
The lawsuit ended without argument proceeding as the agency did not respond to the lawsuit filed by GWSN members for more than 30 days even after receiving the complaint. If the company does not appeal within 14 days of receiving the ruling, the ruling will be finalized and GWSN members will be able to work freely.
Source: Wikitree
