Hanni, a member of NewJeans, said in a surprise live YouTube broadcast on the evening of the 11th, that a manager of HYBE told a group’s members to ignore her. The parents of NewJeans, who were concerned about the alleged bullying in the company, informed HYBE and asked for consultation for a smooth settlement. However, the two sides failed to resolve the conflict. HYBE said that after checking the 7-8 minute CCTV footage of the situation at the time, Hanni and ILLIT members greeted each other and that the manager did not make the remark in question.
The members of NewJeans took action three months later when CEO Min Hee-jin was removed from the leadership position of ADOR. Earlier, their parents said that Chairman Bang Si-hyuk did not greeted the members back when greeted by them several times. HYBE replied at the time, “Chairman Bang may have facial recognition disorders.”
In the end, the members of NewJeans demanded that Min be returned to her CEO position within two weeks. As the specific deadline has been set, doubts have been raised that HYBE may be considering legal proceedings. The music industry sees a strong possibility that NewJeans will enter a lawsuit to terminate its exclusive contract. Usually, lawsuits for termination of contracts have been made by sending demands to the entertainer’s agency and filing an injunction to suspend the validity of the exclusive contract if it is not corrected within a certain period of time.
A KPOP official shared, “As the members of NewJeans went through ‘personnel controversy’ and their distrust of HYBE increased, they ended up in the same position as former CEO Min. Through this live, they seem to have crossed a line and cannot return to HYBE, revealing their intention to be on the same boat with former CEO Min.”
It is highly likely that the group’ demand to “return former CEO Min” will not be accepted. HYBE has currently filed a complaint against former CEO Min on charges of breach of trust. Analysts say that as the conflict has reached its worst, it is unlikely that they will be in harmony.
If the lawsuit begins in earnest, the key topic will likely be their penalty. The Fair Trade Commission’s standardized contract imposes a penalty by multiplying the average monthly sales for the previous two years by the number of months remaining in the contract based on the termination period. As a result, NewJeans’ estimate of penalty amounts to about 300 billion won. It is unlikely that the group will choose to pay a penalty and become free.
An official predicted, “NewJeans will build a justification for leaving the company without penalty, and HYBE will focus on collecting evidence that former CEO Min raised the “suspicious of tempering,” which was the beginning of the conflict. HYBE has claimed that former CEO Min has planned to recruit outside investors to make ADOR independent and take out NewJeans.“
Source: Market Insight
