During the comprehensive audit of the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee on October 24th, Yu In-chon stated that tampering is an issue that “requires self-regulation efforts from the industry“.
On that day, Jin Jong-oh, a lawmaker from the People Power Party, pointed out the issue regarding the Fifty Fifty tampering case, “A rookie group that was successfully debuted by a small agency was made to violate their contract due to influence from large capital. This tampering problem makes it difficult for small agencies to maintain relationships with their artists and could negatively impact the development of K-pop.”
In response, Minister Yu In-chon said, “In reality, this is something that requires a lot of self-regulation efforts from the industry. It is a difficult matter to regulate by law. It is not exactly the same, but I think NewJeans is an extension of this.”
He further elaborated, “We had many conversations with managers and other involved parties, and we also explored introducing a FA system at the time. We researched how to implement such a system back then, but while there have been many efforts to improve the situation on the ground, there are no clear institutional arrangements yet. Continuous education and efforts by the industry for self-regulation are needed.”
Previously, in June last year, ATTRAKT, Fifty Fifty’s agency, announced the suspension of the group’s activities due to the members’ health issues and claimed that external forces had approached the members during this period, leading them to violate their exclusive contracts. The external party they accused was Warner Music Korea.
At the time, all Fifty Fifty members filed for an injunction to suspend their exclusive contract with ATTRAKT, but the court ruled in favor of ATTRAKT. Following this, Saena, Aran and Sio filed appeals, while Keena returned to ATTRAKT.
Currently, Fifty Fifty has been restructured as a five-member group, including Keena. They released their second mini-album “Love Tune” on September 20th. Meanwhile, Saena, Aran and Sio, who left ATTRAKT, formed a new group called “ablume” under MASSIVE E&C on October 15th.
Additionally, on October 23rd, ATTRAKT filed a 20 billion won lawsuit against Warner Music Korea’s former CEO Clayton Jin and current executive director Yoon Hyung-geun. Both individuals deny the allegations.
Source: Daum
