Selling Idol Flight Information? HYBE Takes Legal Action Against Illegal Accounts

On the 18th, HYBE announced the results of their legal response to people who illegally sold flight information of artists under the company on their official website.
The full statement from HYBE is as below:
“Regarding the illegal acquisition and sale of HYBE Labels artists’ flight information, we have been cooperating closely with investigative authorities for several months since the latter half of last year and are informing you of the results of our legal response.
The act of selling or purchasing artist flight information obtained illegally is a clear illegal act that threatens the safety and creates anxiety for the artists. Nevertheless, there have been increasing instances of repeatedly accessing illegally obtained seat information or boarding the same flight to secretly film. Stalking behavior involving continuous approaches to the artists and even attempts to make contact has been detected. There have also been frequent cases of arbitrarily changing seats and in-flight meals and canceling flight reservations to disrupt schedules.

We have determined that such acts pose serious problems that not only infringe on the artists’ personal information but also threaten their safety and can cause accidents at airports and on airplanes. Therefore, to protect our artists from illegally traded flight information and eradicate such illegal activities, we formed a separate task force in September last year.
Before taking legal action against the breach of personal information, we collected multiple SNS accounts illegally selling artists’ flight information and secured evidence to identify the operators. We submitted complaints to investigative agencies against the illegal sales accounts for violations of the Personal Information Protection Act and actively cooperated with the investigation process.
Based on the submitted evidence, investigative agencies conducted long-term domestic and international investigations, identifying suspects, including presumed foreigners, and conducted additional detailed investigations. The suspects are accused of trading artist flight information through SNS channels over a long period and making criminal profits ranging from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of won.

We plan to actively cooperate with the investigative agencies’ additional investigations and future legal proceedings. We will also strictly hold accountable and respond firmly to the criminal acts of commodifying and trading artists’ personal information with a zero-tolerance policy, without any settlements or leniency.
In addition, we have inspected related procedures and systems and requested cooperation from airlines and travel agencies to protect artists’ personal information and prevent further leakage. We will continue to work closely with various organizations to protect the personal information of our artists.
Thank you.”
Source: Dispatch