The group now faces a critical decision: to follow their “mother” Min Hee-jin, even at the risk of incurring hundreds of billions of won in penalties, or to remain with ADOR and continue their current path.
On November 13, NewJeans sent a formal notice to ADOR, demanding Min Hee-jin’s reinstatement as CEO. However, on November 20, Min Hee-jin issued a statement confirming her departure from HYBE, effectively ending any possibility of her returning as ADOR’s CEO. Following this, speculation has grown that NewJeans might also part ways with ADOR to join Min Hee-jin in a new venture.
If NewJeans decides to leave ADOR and align with Min Hee-jin, they will likely face a legal dispute over their exclusive contracts. This could delay their activities indefinitely during the legal proceedings. Even if NewJeans wins the contract termination case, the issue of trademark rights remains.
Currently, the “NewJeans” trademark is owned by ADOR. Legal experts predict that even with a favorable ruling on contract termination, reclaiming the trademark would be a significant challenge. Additionally, if NewJeans fails to terminate their contracts, the estimated penalty for leaving ADOR is expected to reach hundreds of billions of won.
According to the Fair Trade Commission’s standard exclusive contract terms, penalties are calculated by multiplying the monthly average revenue of the past two years by the number of months remaining in the contract. ADOR reported a revenue of 110.3 billion won last year, and NewJeans has five years left on their contract. As such, the estimated penalty for NewJeans could range from 400 to 600 billion won.
Meanwhile, Min Hee-jin continues to express her affection for NewJeans, sharing promotional content for the group on her personal SNS even after resigning from ADOR.
On November 25, Min Hee-jin filed breach of trust charges against HYBE’s Chief Communications Officer (CCO) Park Tae-hee and PR Director Jo with the Seoul Yongsan Police Station. Earlier, on November 22, she also filed defamation lawsuits under the Information and Communications Network Act against officials at HYBE’s subsidiary Belift Lab, including CEO Kim Tae-ho, Vice-CEO Choi Yoon-hyuk and others. Additionally, she has launched a 5 billion won damages lawsuit against Belift Lab.
Source: Naver
