Hyowon CNC, FreeZia’s agency, was sued for 300 million won in the controversy over unsettled payments
Hyowon CNC, FreeZia (Song Ji-ah)’s agency, is reportedly involved in a lawsuit worth 300 million won.
According to a report from Sports Kyunghyang on February 13th, Hyowon CNC was sued on March 15th last year by influencer Choi Seok-young, who used to be under the company, with a request of exclusive contract termination. Choi Seok-young reportedly claimed that Hyowon CNC lied about the production cost and did not pay the amount of the settlement difference in the process of selling e-commerce products.
In an interview with the media, Choi revealed, “I have suffered at least 300 million won in financial damage over the past 4 years”, adding, “When I filed the lawsuit, Hyowon CNC’s legal representative said urged me to agree on the amount of 100 million won since media reports revealed that Hyowon CNC was estimated to lose about 10 billion won”. He decided to raise his voice to warn the public so that no other people would suffer from similar damages as he did.
According to Choi’s claim, he signed a management contract with Hyowon CNC but he only worked on promoting SNS products for a considerable period of time and did not receive any support for commerce activities. Therefore, he requested to terminate his contract in March 2020. However, Hyowon CNC dissuaded him and did not fulfill its obligations for about a year.
In addition, in terms of e-commerce product sales and profit distribution, Hyowon CNC decided on a profit settlement of 5:5, which excluded product costs from Choi’s sales amount, but did not clearly disclose the product costs. Choi also claimed that Hyowon CNC had violated his privacy and personal rights. Along with the demand for the termination of his exclusive contract, he also requested a settlement of unpaid amounts.
On this issue, Hyowon CNC issued a position that seems to conflict with Choi’s. On November 19th last year, the company reportedly filed a request for damage compensation worth 42 million won against Choi. According to Hyowon CNC, Choi unilaterally notified the termination of his contract for no reason. Since they received a down payment of 10 million won, Choi was obliged to pay 30 million won more in accordance with the exclusive contract penalty regulations.
Hyowon CNC released their position through Sports Kyunghyang, saying, “Choi is making false claims for hateful purposes”, adding, “ Regarding the settlement, all data, such as supplier transaction statements, supply contracts, purchase tax invoices, and settlement messages with Choi, have already been submitted to the law firm. Evidence of defamation and attempted blackmail will be revealed by the investigative agency.”
Meanwhile, Hyowon CNC is a commerce company established by actor Kang Ye-won and CEO Kim Hyo-jin. It recently attracted attention as the company to which Youtuber FreeZia belongs.
