The third hearing of the civil lawsuit to confirm the validity of the exclusive contract between girl group NewJeans and ADOR Company (under HYBE Group) took place on July 24.
During the hearing, NewJeans' legal representative revealed the content of a petition written by the 5 members Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein.
In the petition, NewJeans stated: Promoting our return to ADOR is like asking a victim of school violence to return to face the bully.
The employees who have worked with us have quit their jobs, and ADOR is not currently sincere in listening to our opinions. We wonder how loud we have to shout so that everyone can understand our suffering.
NewJeans argue that NewJeans members are the ones who suffered the most losses after being abandoned amid the conflict between HYBE and former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin.
Even in the Hanni-related incident, HYBE did not try to protect the members but also made Hanni look like a lie, NewJeans said.
NewJeans' legal representative further revealed: "The members are in crisis. They not only lost faith in ADOR but also suffered serious psychological effects. Just passing by HYBE headquarters can cause a heart to beat faster, requiring depression treatment drugs.
In this situation, can it be forced to continue performing and working with the reason of "still have a contract"? Are their personal rights respected?".
Notably, NewJeans described the situation as a broken family: Our adoptive mother was kicked out of the house, and now the abusive father says: I will find you a better mother, so lets go home.
NewJeans' legal representative continued to argue, dismissing the accusation that Min Hee Jin was the one behind inciting NewJeans to terminate the contract with ADOR.
The police did not find any evidence that Min Hee Jin violated their obligations. The efforts to audit ADOR and sack him were all based on false premises and aimed to eliminate Min Hee Jin.
ADOR is not currently a past-professional ADOR, but an ADOR controlled by HYBE staff.
They said they have supported and brought in huge profits, but that was when Min Hee Jin was still the CEO. This is no longer the company we trust, so we cannot continue to stay with ADOR, NewJeans said.
NewJeans members do not completely object to the return to ADOR, however, they offer a condition: "If ADOR can return to its current state before the April 2024 audit (when Min Hee Jin is still CEO), NewJeans will be willing to return. But if that's not possible, we hope they will let the members go by terminating their contracts."
NewJeans' statement compares itself to a controversial victim of school violence and domestic violence.
On the online community theqoo, many Korean netizens think that NewJeans is going too far and making unreasonable statements.
What are they talking about? They consider themselves victims of domestic violence after living in a luxurious dormitory and earning a lot of money?
They need to provide factual evidence. We should not continue to put emotions into this.
" Still using emotions to gain sympathy?".
They are going beyond the limit.
"Just pay the fine and leave."
"I have never seen an artist who is so loyal to their CEO" - some noteworthy comments.
