According to the legal community, as of June 24, members of girl group NewJeans (Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, Hyein) have not filed an appeal against the court's decision to "maintain the company's status and prohibit signing advertising contracts".
According to regulations, the appeal for the ban decision must be submitted within 1 week from the date of receipt of the notice of trial.
Previously, on June 17, the Seoul High Court rejected the appeal of 5 NewJeans members against the temporary ban. After the court accepted ADOR's temporary warrant request in March, all petitions and appeals from the NewJeans member were rejected.
The appellate court did not accept NewJeans' argument that the core premise of the exclusive contract collapsed after HYBE conducted an unusual inspection of ADOR and removed CEO Min Hee Jin from the position.
The court stated: Ms. Min Hee Jin has been dissatisfied with the content of the contract between shareholders since around 2023 and requested to amend it, and at the same time sought to remove NewJeans from HYBE's control, or find a way to be able to operate ADOR independently.
Therefore, Ms. Min is in a position to destroy the unified structural foundation between ADOR, Ms. Min and the members, which has created great success.
Other complaints made by the members, such as Hanni hearing "conventional" words from the manager of a HYBE subsidiary, or the issue of copying ideas, were also denied.
The court also pointed out: If NewJeans members arbitrarily break their exclusive contracts and participate in independent entertainment activities, they can take over almost all achievements, but ADOR will suffer serious losses, losing all investment results.
The court also did not accept the argument that the ban on independent activities violates the freedoms of NewJeans members in performing work and creating art.
The court explained, "Even if ADOR's ban request is accepted, NewJeans members can continue their entertainment activities while complying with their exclusive contracts."
Last month, the court also accepted an indirect enforcement request filed by ADOR against NewJeans, requiring each NewJeans member to pay ADOR 1 billion won for each violation if they participate in independent activities.
5 NewJeans members held a press conference to announce the unilateral termination of their contracts with ADOR Company in November last year. The lawsuit filed by ADOR against NewJeans to confirm the validity of the exclusive contract is currently in the first trial.
