NewJeans responds to latest court ruling on independent activities
Legal representatives of the K-pop girl group have issued a statement on a court ruling stipulating that each of the five members would have to pay a fine every time they carry out an independent activity that's not authorised by the agency Ador.
Members of South Korean K-Pop group NewJeans attend a press conference to declare contract termination with the band's label citing multiple reasons including unfair treatment, in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Nov 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
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The legal representatives of K-pop girl group NewJeans have responded to a recent court ruling which stipulated that each of the group's five members would have to pay 1 billion won (US$726,800) every time they engage in activities without the approval of South Korean music label Ador.
After unilaterally ending their contracts in November 2024, citing workplace harassment and other issues, NewJeans carried out numerous independent activities, including opening a separate Instagram page, providing free food to protestors in South Korea last December, rebranding to NJZ and performing at the pop culture festival ComplexCon Hong Kong in March this year.
In January this year, Ador filed an injunction to halt NewJeans' independent activities, which the Seoul Central District Court granted on Mar 21 – days before the group's ComplexCon Hong Kong performance.
After their ComplexCon performance, NewJeans declared that the group will go on a hiatus to respect the court's ruling.
NewJeans is currently appealing against the injunction.
On May 30, the Seoul Central District Court announced that it had accepted Ador's application for an indirect compulsory enforcement – a type of penalty imposed for not complying with a court order – against NewJeans.
As such, the court declared that each NewJeans member will have to pay 1 billion won for every unauthorised activity performed from May 30 onwards.
In response, NewJeans' legal team said the recent court ruling is "not related to the ongoing appeal of the original injunction decision".
“Today’s indirect compulsory enforcement decision is only temporary until a ruling is made on the injunction appeal,” wrote the team.
“If the NewJeans members win the appeal, both the injunction and the indirect compulsory enforcement decision will become null and void. In practice, when an injunction is granted, a corresponding indirect compulsory enforcement order is typically issued as well.”
The next hearing in NewJeans' legal battle will be held on Jun 5.
