Accordingly, Belift Lab - a subsidiary of HYBE Group and the management unit of girl group ILLIT has officially filed a civil lawsuit demanding compensation for damages of up to 100 million won (about 67,800 USD) against the operator of the fandom "Team Bunnies", a group of fans related to NewJeans.
According to sources on December 15, Belift Lab filed a lawsuit with the Seoul Western District Court on December 11.
In the lawsuit, Belift Lab accused the defendant of repeatedly posting false information related to ILLIT, including accusations that the group plagiarized NewJeans' ideas. The company believes that these contents have seriously damaged the reputation of artists as well as the reputation of the business, and at the same time led to business losses. The case has not yet been assigned to the judge in charge.
Bunnies Team is a NewJeans fandom group operating primarily on the X platform (formerly Twitter). When debuting last September, the group introduced themselves as a Bunnies fan base working in various fields such as law, media, finance, culture and art, while affirming that they are not just an ordinary fan community.
The conflict between the two sides began to escalate in November last year, when Team Bunnies filed a criminal lawsuit against CEO Kim Tae Ho of Belift Lab. The reason comes from Mr. Kim's statement in an interview, saying that the design ideas of ILLIT and NewJeans are "completely different". At that time, Team Bunnies denied it, affirming that they held all the relevant documents and records, and criticized the Belift Lab leadership for not admitting the mistake.
However, in a recent separate lawsuit involving NewJeans members and ADOR, the court held that there was not enough basis to conclude that ILLIT copied NewJeans' ideas.
In addition to legal disputes, Team Bunnies has attracted attention when it called for and raised more than 50 million won online to sue malicious posts targeting NewJeans. This process was later discovered to have not completed the registration procedures according to regulations, leading to accusations of violating the Law on Collecting and Using Donations. The group operator, identified as A, was identified as a minor.
