NewJeans will leave HYBE under this large penalty if the latter fails to address the group's request on the 25th, according to music officials.
On Wednesday, the girl group NewJeans issued an ultimatum to HYBE Chairman Bang Si Hyuk to restore the original system of ADOR, including reinstating its former CEO Min Hee Jin until Sept. 25th.
In August, Min was dismissed from her position as the label's leader about four months after fighting against HYBE for breach of trust.
The quintet mentioned these in an emergency live broadcast held through a now-deleted YouTube channel.
During the live stream, the members declared their full support to Min and confessed that they also suffered a lot of mistreatment from the management and artists when the HYBE-ADOR discord broke.
In the entertainment industry, it is common for idols to express dissatisfaction or demands to their agencies. Usually, this leads to the artist filing for an injunction to suspend the validity of their exclusive contract, once changes are not met after giving a certain deadline.
According to the Fair Trade Commission's standard exclusive contract, if an affiliated singer or agency does not abide by the terms of the contract, they can request corrective action within a two-week grace period and enter a contract dispute if corrections weren't given.
As NewJeans set a period when HYBE can only respond to them, officials believe that the group might be preparing for a contract dispute if their demands aren’t made.
Based on music insiders. It is unlikely that HYBE will reinstate Min Hee Jin to her position as CEO by the 25th. Thus, NewJeans has to face the possible contract termination by paying a large penalty.
The expected penalty is over 300 billion KRW or a whopping 225.4 million USD. The law states that to determine the amount of penalty, the "average monthly sales for 2 years" will be multiplied by the "number of months of exclusive contract period remaining" prior to contract termination.
NewJeans debuted in 2022, and ADOR, which only has the group as its solo artist, had sales of approximately 110.3 billion KRW last year, or about 83 million USD.
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Written by Eunice Dela Cruz
