Edaily reported that according to the legal community on May 30, the Civil Division No. 52 of the Seoul Central District Court accepted the request for an indirect fine from ADOR Company (under HYBE Group) against girl group NewJeans.
Indirect fines are a type of penalty applied when not complying with a court order. The court ruled that if NewJeans conducts separate entertainment activities without ADOR's consent, until a first-instance verdict on the lawsuit confirms the validity of the exclusive contract, each NewJeans member will have to pay a fine of 1 billion won to ADOR for each violation.
If 5 members (Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, Hyein) participate in independent activities together, the compensation will be 5 billion won.
The remaining requests from NewJeans were rejected and NewJeans will have to pay the lawsuit fee.
This decision is a separate issue from the order to "maintain the company's status and prohibit NewJeans from signing advertising contracts" that both parties had previously litigated.
When NewJeans members announced the termination of their exclusive contract in November last year on the grounds that ADOR violated its obligations, ADOR stated, Just because they unilaterally stated that trust had been broken, it cannot be considered a basis for termination of the contract and filed a lawsuit against NewJeans in court on December 3, 2024, to confirm the validity of the exclusive contract.
On January 6, 2025, the company continued to file a temporary ban against NewJeans to "maintain the company's status and prohibit NewJeans from signing advertising contracts". By March 21, the court had accepted ADOR's request. NewJeans appealed the first time but was unsuccessful.
Then, on April 4, ADOR continued to file a request for an indirect fine against NewJeans and was approved.
The court stated that performing and releasing new songs by NewJeans under the group name of NJZ is a violation of the obligations stated in the ban decision.
In fact, right after the ban was issued, the group continued to perform at the ComplexCon music event in Hong Kong (China) as scheduled, saying that it was a promise to fans, and they performed a new song.
Meanwhile, NewJeans and ADOR are continuing to dispute through the main lawsuit to confirm the validity of the exclusive contract.
At the first hearing last month, NewJeans' legal representative stated that the group maintained their stance that they had no intention of returning to ADOR.
The second hearing between NewJeans and ADOR will be held on June 5.
