Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
The NewJeans members have reportedly sent a formal notice to their company ADOR, requesting that they addressed what they describe as breaches to their contract, further escalating the ongoing conflict. If not, they say contract termination will be pursued.
In the notice, the members demanded, “Correct all major violations of the exclusive contract within 14 days from the date this notice is received.”
NewJeans stated, “HYBE made a decision to ‘discard New (referring to NewJeans) and start fresh’, so take all necessary actions as the management company of NewJeans. In HYBE’s Music Industry Report (internal monitoring document) recently confirmed in the National Assembly audit, there was a phrase, ‘We’ve been struggling with the wording around New-I-LE (NewJeans, ILLIT, LE SSERAFIM) for days, but it would be easier to discard New and start fresh.’”
NewJeans emphasized, “If ADOR does not accept the demands for correction, we intend to terminate the exclusive contract. Currently, there are baseless rumors circulating about the families and relatives of NewJeans members. NewJeans has no connection to these rumors.”
They added, “If anyone spreads false rumors to defame NewJeans, we will respond firmly.”
In the initial report, the demands were not provided, but Yonhap News later revealed them.
Specifically they wanted clarification on who wanted to “abandon NewJeans”, execute an audit report for NewJeans, take appropriate legal action to be taken against any illegal acts discovered, an official apology from the manager who allegedly said to ignore Hanni, deletion of pics/vids used without consent (trainee stuff, I assume), resolution of damages to NewJeans resulting from sajaegi/album manipulation, resolve issues with director Shin Woo Seok, protection of NewJeans’ style (the copyright stuff, I assume), and the return of Min Hee Jin to her former role.
In response, ADOR denies receiving a formal notice from NewJeans yet.
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It’s perhaps a move many saw coming, as a peaceful compromise seems impossible at this junction, and a lot of what’s been emerging (I’ll track back and cover some other stuff soon) could potentially seem aimed at setting the table for this.
I’ve been wrong to give HYBE’s legal standing credit before, but I do wonder exactly how NewJeans’ case would fare in court. HYBE’s public image and reputation may deservedly be in the gutter, but that really isn’t a legal case for contract termination, after all. Things like definitively proving some kind of sabotage of them and/or the workplace ostracization seems key to any lawsuit.
A separation seems best for everybody involved — compensation would be another fight, of course — but that would also be giving Min Hee Jin exactly what she wanted, so HYBE will fight it until the death regardless of what might be best for business. Needless to say, strap in.
Update
HYBE now say they’ve received it.
We received their certificate of contents this morning and are reviewing it. We are aware of their specific requests they made in it. We will do our best to wisely resolve the issues and continue to work together with NewJeans.
