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NewJeans vs ADOR 1st hearing: NJZ claims media play over ILLIT plagiarism caused fame decline, accuses HYBE of THIS
NewJeans has accused HYBE of plagiarizing their concept through ILLIT and suppressing their tribute to the Jeju airplane accident victims.
The legal dispute between NJZ (formerly known as NewJeans) and their agency, ADOR, under HYBE Labels, has reached a critical stage with the first court hearing on March 7, 2025, at the 50th Civil Division of the Seoul Central District Court. NJZ alleges that HYBE manipulated during the Jeju Air Memorial Tribute and claims intellectual property infringement by the ILLIT group.
NJZ members Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein detailed their grievances, claiming that the group suffered from several incidents of unfair treatment by HYBE. The K-Pop girl group alleged that HYBE engaged in biased media play, deprioritized the group in favor of newer acts like ILLIT, and even undermined NJZ’s promotional opportunities.
As per Naver, NJZ shares, "HYBE’s large-scale media play, ILLIT plagiarism controversy, restructuring of New Berry and the destruction of cooperation with the ‘Dolphin Kidnapping’ group are all things that happened from 2023 to 2024. Except for debtors (NewJeans), none of the artists belonging to HYBE have experienced this.”
NJZ accused HYBE of attempting to replace them with ILLIT, stating that HYBE plagiarized NewJeans' debut plan and branding for the new group. They claimed that every aspect of ILLIT’s concept, from team structure to styling and even choreography, has a similar pattern, which NJZ followed.
Furthermore, they alleged that when Min Hee Jin, the CEO of ADOR, requested an explanation, she was met with an aggressive audit and legal action instead.
NJZ continues to share HYBE attempted to prevent them from wearing black ribbons to honor the Jeju airplane accident victims. As per Edaily, NJZ says, “At the time, the members wanted to wear the ribbon on stage in Japan, but HYBE prevented them from doing so, saying that 'the Japanese station might have a problem with it,' but after checking, they were told by the Japanese station that they had no problem with it.”
The group later discovered that all other HYBE artists on stage were wearing regular memorial ribbons. They stated that if they had followed HYBE’s directive and not worn the ribbon, they would have faced criticism. NJZ continues to share, Later we found out that HYBE artists were standing on stage wearing a regular memorial ribbon.”
These were presented as evidence of HYBE strategically attempting to damage their reputation on stage.
For those who are unaware, ILLIT faced controversy over claims that the all-girl K-pop group was modeled after NewJeans, produced by former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin.
ILLIT's Lucky Girl Syndrome choreography previously sparked controversy due to comparisons with the choreography featured in NJZ's advertisement.
NewJeans vs ADOR first hearing: Label claims 'next BTS' tag given by Min Hee Jin, success due to 21 billion KRW investment
