According to legal sources on January 21, Dolphiners Films submitted an appeal to the Seoul Central District Court’s Civil Division 63 (Presiding Judge Lee Kyu-young) the previous day.
Previously, according to legal sources on January 20, Dolphiners Films submitted an application for suspension of compulsory execution to the Civil Division 63 of the Seoul Central District Court. The move follows a recent first-instance ruling in which the court partially ruled in favor of ADOR in its damages lawsuit against Dolphiners Films and director Shin Woo-seok. The court ordered Dolphiners Films to pay 1 billion won in damages, along with delayed interest, while dismissing the damages claim against Shin Woo-seok personally.
The court also ruled that the damages were subject to provisional enforcement. Normally, compulsory execution is only possible after a ruling becomes final following all appeals. However, in some cases, courts allow provisional enforcement prior to a final ruling in order to swiftly protect the rights of the prevailing party.
Once the ruling is served, the winning party may proceed with provisional enforcement of the awarded damages, while the losing party may file a request to suspend enforcement. In this case, Dolphiners Films is understood to have requested a suspension of the provisional enforcement of the 1 billion won damages ordered in the first trial.
The legal feud between ADOR and Dolphiners Films ignited last August after director Shin Woo-seok claimed ADOR forced him to delete all NewJeans content, including the iconic “Ban Hee-soo” channel, following his upload of the ETA director’s cut.
Full Statement from Dolphiners Films
This is Dolphiners Films.
Regarding the first-instance ruling on the claim for damages involving ADOR, which was sentenced on the 13th, we would like to correct certain false information currently being circulated.
In the ruling of the aforementioned case, the court stated—contrary to ADOR’s claims—that “the act of uploading NewJeans’ ‘ETA’ Director’s Cut video to our YouTube channel was based on an oral agreement between the parties and therefore cannot be viewed as an unauthorized posting,” and “the testimony and evidence supporting the existence of an oral agreement are all credible, and there is no room to doubt their authenticity.”
However, because the contract requires written consent, the court judged that despite the oral agreement with ADOR’s CEO, our company is still obligated to pay a penalty for a breach of contract.
Aside from that, the court clearly determined that no copyright infringement occurred and that Director Shin Woo-seok’s posting of his statement was lawful; thus, the court dismissed all of ADOR’s claims for damages against our company.
Nevertheless, recognizing a clear agreement between the parties regarding the upload of the “ETA” Director’s Cut while simultaneously finding a breach of duty simply because that agreement was not in writing is, in itself, a contradiction. Furthermore, we must state that this goes against the intention of the parties at the time of the agreement to substitute the written contract with an oral one.
Consequently, believing that the first-instance court’s decision contradicts the intent of the parties involved and defies common sense, we filed an appeal on January 20th.
Additionally, the NewJeans music videos and supplementary content produced by us to date were projects undertaken while accepting financial losses to expand Dolphiners Films’ portfolio and ensure the artistic quality of the work. To prove this in this case, we submitted data regarding project profits and losses to the court to verify these facts.
Finally, rumors regarding our company’s contract structure are also untrue. Dolphiners Films maintains a partnership of mutual respect, ensuring an independent creative environment through rational contracts. We ask that you refrain from groundless speculation or malicious defamation.
Moving forward, we plan to respond sternly to acts such as the distribution of false information and organized comment manipulation based on reported tips.
Thank you.
January 21, 2026
Dolphiners Films Co., Ltd.
ADOR quickly denied this, asserting they only requested the removal of that specific unauthorized video and accused Shin of spreading false information. The dispute has since escalated into a legal battle, with Shin filing a defamation complaint and ADOR pursuing a civil lawsuit for damages. Adding weight to the case, former CEO Min Hee-jin recently testified that verbal agreements for the video’s release did exist, directly challenging ADOR’s claims.
Sources: Daum
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