Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Last year in June it was revealed that Happyface Entertainment would be filing a lawsuit against YG Entertainment regarding the ‘MIXNINE‘ debacle, asking for ~$9000 in compensation, which made it a rather symbolic issue. YGE responded by hiring a top law firm and then did their best to make excuses, but all of that ended up being for naught as HFE has now withdrawn their lawsuit after receiving a sincere apology from YGE.
First of all, we express sincere gratitude to everyone who has shown lots of interest and concern for our legal conflict with YG Entertainment, which produced “MIXNINE.” We recently met with the “MIXNINE” production team a few times and had many discussions. We clearly pointed out and criticized the various problems that occurred with “MIXNINE” during filming and after the broadcast ended, and the “MIXNINE” production team fully acknowledged [the problems] and apologized. D1CE Entertainment accepted the sincere apology of the “MIXNINE” production team, and we settled our misunderstandings peacefully. Furthermore, considering Yang [Hyun Suk]’s will for more healthy development of the entertainment industry in the future, we withdrew the lawsuit regarding “MIXNINE.” D1CE Entertainment hopes that this process was a meaningful step of reflecting upon the meaning of communication and synergy, and we promise to continue focusing our full effort into this. We once again express deep gratitude for everyone who sent a lot of support to Woo Jin Young and the D1CE members who are awaiting their debut along with D1CE Entertainment.
Aside from the obvious takeaway, this clarifies the HFE structure, where both of their groups (Dreamcatcher/D1CE) have their own sub-labels of sorts.
To anybody following this from the start, it was quite obvious which side was in the right since it was public knowledge that the group didn’t debut and that YGE tried to change the contract terms, plus YGE didn’t bother refuting HFE claims that they weren’t reimbursed for expenses as promised.
Still, there were valid concerns that the more powerful company with the powerful lawyers would find a way to win regardless. Thankfully that doesn’t seem to be the case as they appear to have reached a settlement. That said, it should be interesting to see if any other companies follow suit by suing YGE now that there’s precedent.
