On March 7th, the Seoul Central District Court’s Civil Agreement Division 50 (Chief Judge Kim Sang-hoon) conducted an interrogation on ADOR’s injunction requesting a ban on NewJeans members’ independent activities, including signing advertising contracts. The interrogation drew keen attention from netizens as all five members of NewJeans were present in court.
Although the interrogation was technically about the injunction, the main issue inevitably revolved around the validity of NewJeans‘ exclusive contract with ADOR. This meant that the reasons for NewJeans’ departure from the agency were discussed in detail, and ADOR countered their claims using video footage, emails, and KakaoTalk messages as proof to argue that the members’ testimonies were not true.
One of the most surprising points in the interrogation was the CCTV footage that ADOR presented contradicted Hanni’s claim that she was ignored by the staff of BELIFT Lab, the label managing HYBE’s girl group ILLIT. In the video, it could clearly be seen that ILLIT members bowed 90 degrees to Hanni as they passed by her.
ADOR further explained, “The CCTV footage does not have audio, so it is impossible to verify whether anyone was saying ‘Ignore her’ toward Hanni as she claimed”, adding “However, we still tried to confirm the facts with Belift Lab and requested measures to prevent recurrence”.
In addition, ADOR also raised a new claim suspecting former CEO Min Hee-jin of leaking the controversial internal HYBE document “Music Industry Report,” which NewJeans cited as a major reason for terminating their contract.
During the interrogation, ADOR revealed that Min Hee-jin repeatedly accessed the report in October 2023, around the time it was leaked to the media, and then presented access records as evidence.
ADOR also pointed out that there were no objections at the time the report was first published in May 2023 and shared with Min Hee-jin and some ADOR executives. ADOR’s move raised another question about the reason Min Hee-jin remained silent when she first received the report if it truly contained the phrase “exclude NewJeans and start fresh”.
