On August 27, the East Seoul District Court (South Korea) rejected Mido's lawsuit, a Swiss watch brand, requesting Gold Medalist, Kim Soo Hyun's management company, to return more than 570 million won in advertising contracts, while the actor is still facing many lawsuits from brands after a private life scandal.
Kim Soo Hyun signed an advertising contract with Mido from 2020 and continuously extended each year. In November 2024, the brand spent 900 million won to continue cooperating with the actor for one year. However, after the controversy related to Kim Soo Hyun broke out, Mido decided to terminate the contract and request a refund of the amount corresponding to the remaining time.
Mido believes that the noise has affected his image, thereby reducing Kim Soo Hyun's commercial value. Therefore, the brand requests Gold Medalist to return the remuneration that has been paid but has not been used.
Gold Medalist disagrees with the above request. The company believes that the controversy stems from false information provided by a third party, not from Kim Soo Hyun's wrongdoing. Therefore, the actor's side believes that there is no basis to terminate the contract and request a refund.
After consideration, the court rejected Mido's request. The Trial Panel determined that there was not enough basis to recognize the reason for terminating the contract given by the brand. Accordingly, Gold Medalist did not have to return the money Mido requested.
The new ruling is being noticed in the context that Kim Soo Hyun is still involved in many disputes related to advertising contracts. Eider, FromBio, Classys, Cuckoo Electronics and Trendmaker have taken legal action against the actor and management company. The total value of compensation and refund requests in these cases is said to be up to tens of billions of won.
The disputes originated from the noise related to the relationship between Kim Soo Hyun and the late actress Kim Sae Ron. The incident lasted for months with a series of information and documents published on social networks, causing Kim Soo Hyun's image to be affected and his activities to be interrupted.
Kim Soo Hyun and Gold Medalist have repeatedly denied the allegations. During the investigation, authorities determined that some published documents related to the case showed signs of forgery. The recording file introduced as Kim Sae Ron's voice was identified as being created using AI technology, while the KakaoTalk message streams released were also concluded to be fake.
Kim Se Ui, head of the Garo Sero Research Institute YouTube channel and the person who continuously made accusations related to Kim Soo Hyun, was prosecuted in June with many charges, including spreading false information that harmed his honor, tracking and threatening.
The noise also affected Kim Soo Hyun's artistic activities. The movie "Knock-Off" starring him on Disney+ was postponed. The actor also limited public appearances for a long time.
Recently, Kim Soo Hyun began to return to entertainment activities. At the end of July, it was determined that he was not transferred to prosecution related to allegations of violating the Law on Child Welfare. The actor then appeared in Jakarta (Indonesia) in the 37th anniversary program of RCTI station.
The ruling in the Mido case has not closed the disputes between Kim Soo Hyun and other brands. However, this is a favorable legal result for the actor and Gold Medalist at a time when he is gradually returning to showbiz after a long period of noise.
