The group NewJeans celebrated their 1000th day since their debut, but their petition for a stay was dismissed, and the ban on independent activities was upheld.

On the 16th, the NewJeans members conveyed their message celebrating their 1000th day since their debut through a social media account named after the initials of their names.

They said, "Bunnies~! It's been 1000 days since we met!" and stated, "The 1000 days we spent with Bunnies were happy!"

Debuting on July 22, 2022, NewJeans gained immense popularity both domestically and internationally with releases such as "Attention," "Hype Boy," "Ditto," "OMG," and "How Sweet." However, in November of last year, they held an emergency press conference and declared the termination of their contract, stating that their agency, ADOR, had violated its contractual obligations. Subsequently, the five members completed their scheduled activities and began independent actions under the new name NJZ.

ADOR sought a legal confirmation that the exclusive contract was valid by filing a lawsuit with the Seoul Central District Court, and prior to that, filed a petition against the five NewJeans members for 'prohibiting the preservation of agency status and the conclusion of advertisement contracts.'

On the 21st of last month, the 50th Civil Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Chief Judge Kim Sang-hoon) accepted the petition and issued a ruling in favor of ADOR.

According to the court's judgment, the members are prohibited from engaging in entertainment activities on their own (including legal representatives) or through third parties without prior approval or consent from ADOR, which makes it difficult for them to use their new name "NJZ" and engage in independent activities.

According to the decision document, the court stated that regarding the following matters: ▲ the production gap caused by the dismissal of ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin, ▲ the statement by HYBE CEO Park Ji-won that "Kim Min-ji and others will be given a long vacation," ▲ the dispute between director Shin Woo-seok of Dolphin Kidnapping Group and ADOR, ▲ the notation in HYBE's May 10, 2023, Music Industry Report stating, "Just discard the new and start over," ▲ ILLIT's infringement of NewJeans' uniqueness and the notation therein, ▲ Hanni hearing a "disregard" remark from an ILLIT manager, ▲ the leakage of photos and videos from the trainee period of Kim Min-ji and others, ▲ remarks made by the HYBE PR officer that undermined NewJeans' achievements, ▲ the depreciation of NewJeans' achievements due to HYBE's album pushing practices, and ▲ the remark by HYBE CSO Lee Jae-sang that he was "considering damaging the NewJeans brand value to bring down both Min Hee-jin and NewJeans." The court determined that, based on the claims and materials submitted by Kim Min-ji and others to date, it was difficult to see that ADOR had sufficiently violated its significant contractual obligations.

Afterward, the NewJeans members rejected the court's decision and submitted a petition for reconsideration, declaring a suspension of activities. They also changed the official social media ID, which had been set up to communicate with fans under the name NJZ, to "mhdhh_friends" and deleted all posts.

The hearing for the petition for reconsideration held on the 9th was conducted in private for about 15 minutes with only the representatives of both sides in attendance, and on the 16th, the court dismissed the petition filed by the five NewJeans members.

In response, the NewJeans members are expected to immediately appeal, and the legal battle is likely to continue.

The NewJeans members stated, "The court that made the original decision today upheld the original decision, and we have submitted the appeal immediately," and added, "We will diligently engage in the ongoing legal procedures and do our best to clarify the facts."

With NewJeans' activities shrouded in uncertainty, attention is drawn to the future actions of the five members of NewJeans.

[Photo] OSEN DB

[OSEN]