Star News reported that on the morning of March 7, the hearing on the ban submitted by ADOR against 5 members of the NewJeans (NJZ) group, aiming to maintain ADOR's management company status and prohibit NewJeans from signing advertising contracts, was held at Civil Division No. 50 of the Seoul Central District Court.
ADOR CEO Kim Joo Young and all 5 NewJeans members (Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, Hyein) appeared in court.
At the trial, ADOR said that NewJeans' success came not only from the talent and efforts of the members, but also thanks to the great support from HYBE Group and BTS's global reputation.
Specifically, ADOR stated: "NewJeans is one of the typical Korean girl groups in the international market. The talent and efforts of the members have contributed the most to the success of NewJeans.
However, that alone cannot fully explain the group's success. Our company's only artist is NewJeans. About 50 employees in the company, including stylists, musicians, camerans, choreographers and managers, have been dedicated day and night to NewJeans' success since they were trainees.
In particular, ADOR emphasized: Behind this success is the comprehensive support of parent group HYBE. ADOR has received a total of 21 billion won (over 370 billion VND) in investment from HYBE in two installments. This is an unprecedented type of investment for a single group.
As a result, ADOR was able to create a platform dedicated to NewJeans fans and invest 10 billion won just for the group's debut and marketing.
ADOR added that NewJeans also uses HYBE's intangible capital.
NewJeans members have appeared in BTS's MVs before the group's debut, participated in challenge videos with many other HYBE artists every time they release new songs, and were widely promoted as "BTS sisters".
From the beginning, NewJeans was introduced as the sister of BTS and promoted as successing BTS, surpassing BTS at Min Hee Jins request. This is the only case in HYBE at that time that used the popularity of another group for media purposes, ADOR said.
5 NewJeans members held an emergency press conference and announced the termination of their contracts with ADOR from November 29, 2024.
After that, they created their own social media account, announced the activity under the new group name NJZ and revealed that they will release a new music product at the ComplexCon festival in Hong Kong (China) on March 23.
Meanwhile, ADOR affirmed that the company's exclusive contract with NewJeans is still valid until July 31, 2029.
On December 3, 2024, ADOR filed a lawsuit against NewJeans in court to confirm the validity of the exclusive contract.
On January 6, 2025, a ban application was also submitted by ADOR to maintain its status as a management company and prohibit NewJeans from signing advertising contracts.
