K-Pop

Legal actions initiated against a fake event that announced it is inviting WINNER, Pentagon, Weekly, etc. 

A European Kpop event, which claims that famous Kpop groups have been invited, is being sued for false information.

Recently, a European Kpop event claimed that it has invited famous Korean groups such as WINNER and Pentagon, and even proceeded with ticket reservations. However, as it turns out, this is a fake event that copies the name and design of another festival, leading to a legal battle. 

In particular, the copy-cat event, which is called “K.FLEX in London”, promoted as KPOP FLEX, and uses the website “kpopflex”, is purposely named after “KPOP.FLEX”, a legit event. 

The real event, “KPOP.FLEX” is Europe’s largest Kpop festival event since the COVID-19 pandemic, which was held at Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt, Germany back in May. This festival welcomed many familiar names such as EXO members Kai, Mamamoo, NCT Dream, (G)I-DLE, AB6IX, ENHYPEN, IVE, Dreamcatcher, and Monsta X, and gathered a total of 80,000 spectators with resounding success.

The organizers, Seongsu-dong Media and SBS, are preparing for future festivals in other European regions based on this success.

However, it was revealed that Company A, which was a local partner in Europe, was preparing to hold a performance called “K.FLEX” with a similar name without prior consultation with the Korean organizers, and even began selling tickets, leading to the two Korean companies having to intervene. Nevertheless, “K.FLEX” are still opening ticket reservations and claiming that a concert will be held at O2 Arena in London, UK on November 20th.

K.flex
The company that is in charge of “K.FLEX”, which deliberately mimics “KPOP.FLEX”, claimed that they have invited groups such as WINNER, Pentagon, and AB6IX, and even published a related press release to promote the event. 

Company A was also operating the website of the existing “KPOP.FLEX”, but has changed the contents to “K.FLEX” on the original domains. They even distributed press releases and published articles saying that groups such as WINNER, Pentagon, AB6IX, VIVIZ, and Weeekly were invited.

At this, Choi Il Ji, the CEO of Seongsu-dong Media said, “‘K.FLEX’ is an obvious fake event that copied the information and name of ‘KPOP.FLEX’ without permission, and the logo and design were also copied. They are promoting extensively that K.FLEX is a follow-up performance to KPOP.FLEX.”

He continued, “They are selling tickets for a K.FLEX concert, which is to be held in London, England on November 20th. However, London, England is the place where we are going to hold next year’s concert called ‘KPOP.FLEX in London’. This is not only an illegal act that destroys Korea’s cultural IP that has been worked on for a long time, but also an inevitable huge confusion and financial damage for overseas Kpop fans.”

An official from the performance industry said, “The act of confusing Kpop fans overseas using a brand that has achieved great success abroad not only shakes the foundation of the domestic performance industry, but also damages the reliability of Kpop-related content if it spreads to ticket refunds. In order to protect IP, which is an intangible asset, the performance industry itself needs strong regulations and protective measures as well as strengthening ethical awareness.”

Source: daum

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