The legal battle between NewJeans and HYBE is heating up, and now, shocking claims of favoritism and unfair treatment have surfaced! NewJeans' side has accused HYBE of neglecting them while prioritizing LE SSERAFIM, another girl group under the same company.
On March 7 at Seoul Central District Court, a hearing took place regarding ADOR’s injunction request to maintain its position as NewJeans’ agency and stop the members from signing independent advertising contracts.
During the hearing, NewJeans’ representatives didn’t hold back, saying, “HYBE’s media manipulation, ILLIT’s plagiarism controversy, exclusion of NewJeans from internal restructuring, and conflicts with external partners—all these problems escalated between 2023 and 2024.”
They added, “No other HYBE group has been treated this way. Only NewJeans.”
The legal team also criticized HYBE for failing to manage its labels properly, stating, “HYBE turns a blind eye to unfair treatment within its sub-labels and does nothing to fix these issues. If another agency faced the same situation, they wouldn’t stay silent like HYBE has.”
One of the biggest accusations made during the hearing was that HYBE allegedly prioritized LE SSERAFIM over NewJeans from the very beginning.
NewJeans’ representatives claimed, “HYBE originally planned for NewJeans to be its ‘first girl group.’ This was the reason why Min Hee-jin joined HYBE.”
However, things suddenly changed. “After NewJeans' debut evaluation was completed in March 2021, HYBE ignored them until September of that year. Meanwhile, Source Music recruited Sakura, Kim Chaewon, and Huh Yunjin and pushed ahead with LE SSERAFIM’s debut first—without any explanation.”
The accusations didn’t stop there. NewJeans’ legal team also pointed out suspicious treatment when it came to brand ambassador deals.
“Member Hyein was originally chosen as an ambassador for a certain brand,” they revealed. “But suddenly, LE SSERAFIM was also added as ambassadors for the same brand.”
What’s even more shocking is that when they asked the brand about it, they were told that HYBE had directly requested LE SSERAFIM’s inclusion—but NewJeans had never been informed! The brand even apologized for the misunderstanding, thinking NewJeans already knew.
This hearing marks the first official court battle since NewJeans attempted to terminate their contracts with ADOR in November last year.
ADOR argued, “Before a legal decision was made, the members started trying to create an independent group name and sign advertising contracts. This is a serious breach of contract.”
However, NewJeans’ side fired back, saying, “We wanted to handle everything smoothly and professionally, but seeing how ADOR and HYBE have treated us, we realized we couldn’t stay silent anymore.”
They ended with a strong statement: “We will expose the truth about HYBE and ADOR through legal action and fight until the end.”
As the drama unfolds, fans are left wondering—what’s really going on behind the scenes at HYBE?
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