While the conflict between Chuu, who was expelled from girl group LOONA, and her agency Blockberry Creative (Blockberry) is facing a new phase with Blockberry submitting a petition, the first trial is also underway for the lawsuit on the merits of the exclusive contract between the two sides.
The 12th Civil Division of the Seoul Northern District Court will continue the hearing of the civil lawsuit to confirm the non-existence of the exclusive contract in March. This lawsuit was filed in December 2021, and three hearings have been held so far.
Chuu is the only member of LOONA to file a lawsuit against Blockberry to confirm the non-existence of the exclusive contract. Other members only filed injunctions to suspend their entertainment activities, but Chuu is more actively expressing her intention to completely terminate the contract with Blockberry by filing both. Chuu received a partial winning ruling in the injunction filed against Blockberry in March 2022 to suspend the validity of the exclusive contract.
In response, Blockberry submitted a petition containing the ban on Chuu‘s entertainment activities to the Korea Entertainment Management Association and the Korea Entertainment Producers’ Association in December 2022. Blockberry officially raised the issue of Chuu’s tampering (pre-contact) through the submission of a petition through the reward and punishment committee of the Korea Entertainment Management Association. Blockberry judged that Chuu had already tampered with BY4M in order to sign a new contract around 2021. They submitted a petition to the reward and punishment committee of the Korea Entertainment Management Association, claiming that it was a “violation of management contract”. As Chuu’s side said “She will attend the reward and punishment committee“, the two sides are expected to face each other soon.
Along with this, Blockberry is continuing to take legal action against all members of LOONA, such as submitting petitions to the reward and punishment committee of the Korea Entertainment Management Association to prohibit entertainment activities of 4 people, including Heejin, Kim Lip, JinSoul and Choerry.
Out of 9 LOONA members that filed requests to suspend their exclusive contracts with Blockberry, 4 members (Heejin, Kim Lip, JinSoul, Choerry) won and 5 members (Haseul, Yeojin, Yves, Olivia Hye, Gowon) lost. Besides, members Vivi and Hyunjin reportedly filed the same lawsuit recently.
In November 2022, Blockberry shocked the public by announcing their decision to expel and remove Chuu from LOONA through an official fan cafe notice. Blockberry said, “We decided to expel and remove artist Chuu (real name Kim Ji Woo) from the group LOONA as of November 25th, 2022. We conducted an investigation after receiving reports about abuse of power, including verbal abuse, by Chuu toward our staff members, and found out it was true. Our company’s representative has apologized to the staff and is currently comforting them. We also decided to take responsibility by expelling Chuu from LOONA.”
Afterwards, Blockberry postponed LOONA’s comeback in January indefinitely and announced, “After listening to the opinions of many Orbit (fans of LOONA), we decided that comeback activities are meaningless without resolving the various concerns regarding the members’ situation.”
In addition, Chuu was embroiled in rumors of bullying within the team until recently, but Chuu herself and the agency remained silent by not expressing any particular position. In the meantime, Chuu is her own woman, such as standing on the year-end awards ceremony stage. Attention is focused on how the lawsuit between Chuu and Blockberry will end.
Source: daum
