The court has ruled in favor of Chuu, a former member of girl group LOONA, in her lawsuit against Blockberry Creative.
On August 17th, the 12th Civil Division of the Seoul Northern District Court ruled against Blockberry Creative (hereinafter referred to as Blockberry) in their lawsuit with former LOONA member Chuu. Thus, the court has invalidate Chuu’s exclusive contract with Blockberry, which was signed in December 2017.
The judge’s verdict stated, “The exclusive contract concluded between the plaintiff (Chuu) and the defendant (Blockberry) in December 2017 is confirmed to be invalid”, raising Chuu’s hand in victory. Furthermore, the court ordered Blockberry to bear the litigation costs.
Previously, in March, the court attempted to mediate between Chuu and Blockberry, but failed to achieve success. Ultimately, in the recent ruling, the judge determined that the exclusive contract between Chuu and Blockberry has no legal effect. As a result of her victory in the main lawsuit following the preliminary injunction application, Chuu achieves complete freedom from her contractual relationship with Blockberry.
Earlier, in January of last year, Chuu filed for a preliminary injunction to suspend the effectiveness of the exclusive contract with Blockberry, pointing out issues such as income settlement and breach of trust. The court accepted this request.
Later on, other members of LOONA also received favorable judgments in their applications for preliminary injunctions to suspend the effectiveness of their exclusive contracts with Blockberry.
On the other hand, in November of the previous year, Blockberry announced through their official fan cafe that Chuu had been dismissed and withdrawn from LOONA, causing a stir.
At the time, Blockberry claimed that Chuu mistreated and used abusive language towards staff members, so they are expelling her. Blockberry also indefinitely postponed LOONA’s comeback due to this incident
Meanwhile, Chuu simply refuted, stating that she has never done anything that can make her fans feel ashamed. Many other staff and artists also come to the female idol’s defense.
In December of the same year, Blockberry also submitted a document demanding Chuu’ to be prohibited from engaging in entertainment activities through the Korea Entertainment Management Association’s (KEMA) Reward and Punishment Committee.
According to Blockberry, Chuu attempted to establish contact with a different company for a new contract as early as 2021. However, KEMA stated that the foundation of Blockberry’s claim is insufficient, and clarified that this matter will be determined in the main lawsuit being conducted by the judicial authorities, not by KEMA.
Source: Naver
