On March 26, an insightful interview featuring the members of NewJeans was released by BBC News. The discussion highlighted the group’s experiences over the past year, revealing the rollercoaster of emotions and challenges they have encountered in their careers. During the interview, member Hanni addressed the ongoing conflict between NewJeans and their management agency, ADOR, mentioning its implications for other parties beyond themselves.
Hanni elaborated on the group’s decision-making process concerning their contract with ADOR, emphasizing that their choices were well-considered rather than impulsive. She acknowledged the potential ramifications of their dispute on another girl group, speculated to be ILLIT, which is also under the HYBE label.
“I’ll be completely honest, we are not that comfortable about constantly bringing up that situation because we know that it involves another team and we don’t want to affect that team in any way because there is no need for that. But if we don’t express how we are feeling and thinking, people won’t know and they would have believed what was going on in the media.”
Although Hanni did not explicitly name ILLIT, many netizens drew connections to past allegations of plagiarism directed at ILLIT, which coincided with NewJeans’ earlier disputes with HYBE. ILLIT faced scrutiny for allegedly mirroring NewJeans’ aesthetics and style in both music and marketing efforts upon its debut.
Understanding the Alleged Dispute Between NewJeans and ILLIT
In a related development, a legal hearing took place in October 2024 regarding Min Hee-jin’s request for an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting and her reappointment as CEO of ADOR. According to reports from Korea JoongAng Daily, Min’s team asserted that a HYBE staff member had sought NewJeans’ foundational concepts during the early development phases of ILLIT, resulting in similar outcomes between the two groups.
When Min Hee-jin reviewed ILLIT’s project plans, she noted significant similarities to NewJeans. Her representatives stated they possess substantial evidence demonstrating that BeLift Lab, ILLIT’s agency, drew heavily from NewJeans’ promotional and aesthetic framework. BeLift Lab has, however, consistently denied these claims.
During the court proceedings, Min Hee-jin’s legal team articulated:
“Despite the clear facts, Belift Lab continues to deny the plagiarism allegations, and HYBE has neglected this issue. Former CEO Min Hee-jin internally raised concerns about ‘ILLIT copying NewJeans’ on April 3, 2024, and it has been proven through objective evidence that her concerns were legitimate. HYBE responded to Min Hee-jin’s internal complaints with an audit, but this proves that the audit was an illegal and unjust process.”
Ultimately, the court dismissed Min’s injunction request, stating that the claims did not satisfy the legal criteria for a court ruling, according to The Korea Times.
Currently, the members of NewJeans, who have rebranded themselves as NJZ following their unilateral termination of contract with ADOR, are on hiatus. This decision was made public on March 23, coming after their performance at ComplexCon Hong Kong. This hiatus follows a court ruling on March 21 that favored ADOR, preventing the members from pursuing independent activities temporarily.
Looking ahead, NJZ and ADOR are set to confront the legitimacy of the unilateral contract termination, with their first hearing scheduled for April 3.