Last Updated:March 08, 2025, 14:18 IST
The hearing is based on an injunction request by ADOR seeking legal confirmation that it is the official management label of NJZ formerly NewJeans.
The girl group’s members appeared at Seoul Central District Court for the first round of hearings. (Photo Credits: X)
The ongoing legal dispute between NJZ (formerly NewJeans) and ADOR has now reached the courtroom. On March 7, the girl group’s members – Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein – all dressed in black, appeared at the Seoul Central District Court for the first round of hearings. Representatives from ADOR, the HYBE subsidiary, were also present.
The hearing is based on an injunction request that ADOR filed in January this year. The company wants legal confirmation that it is the official management label of NJZ. Along with this, ADOR is also seeking a court order to stop the NJZ members from signing independent advertisement contracts.
During the hearing, NJZ’s legal team claimed that HYBE had treated the group unfairly compared to its other artists. As reported by Koreaboo, they pointed out that LE SSERAFIM debuted before NewJeans even though there was allegedly an earlier agreement that Min Hee Jin’s group would be HYBE’s first girl group.
Other issue raised by NJZ was the confusion created by HYBE regarding brand endorsements. NJZ’s representatives said that after Hyein was chosen as a brand ambassador for a luxury fashion house which is believed to be Louis Vuitton, HYBE got involved. They claimed that HYBE pushed for LE SSERAFIM to get a similar deal which even caused confusion within the brand itself.
“Additionally, Hyein was chosen as the ambassador for a specific brand, but suddenly, LE SSERAFIM was also named as an ambassador. When we inquired with the brand, they confirmed that HYBE had requested it and assumed that they had talked about it with us first. The brand even apologized for the matter,” NJZ’s legal representatives said in the court as quoted by Koreaboo.
In response, ADOR’s legal team stated that the endorsement deal for LE SSERAFIM developed “naturally through a friendly relationship” after the group attended the brand’s fashion event.
“CEO Min is unilaterally claiming that the contract between Source Music artists and the luxury brand was facilitated by utilizing the network discovered during the NewJeans member’s ambassador contract process, and that ADOR should have obtained prior consent. However, the contract between the brand and Source Music was formed naturally through a friendly relationship that developed after the artist attended the brand’s fashion show,” ADOR’s legal representatives said.
ADOR’s representatives further pointed out that boy band BTS had previously worked with the same luxury brand and ADOR never had to get permission from HYBE’s BigHit Music before signing an endorsement deal.
“Additionally, before NewJeans’ Hyein signed as a global ambassador, BTS’s J-Hope had already signed with the brand, and prior to that, BTS as a group was the first in the world to work as global ambassadors for the brand. Following the same logic, ADOR should have also obtained consent from Big Hit Music (J-Hope/BTS), who had previously signed ambassador contracts with the brand before ADOR,” they said.
On social media, the arguments presented by ADOR received mixed opinions.
A user wrote, “They’re really making this complicated,” while another said, “There’s no place where they haven’t interfered.”
Someone else commented, “But Hyein really suits Louis Vuitton” and a person added, “It must be nice for LE SSERAFIM to receive love from Bang Si Hyuk like this.”