A South Korean court ruled that members of the K-POP Newjeans group should not carry out independent activities, from music to the signing of advertising transactions.
Earlier last year, Newjeans said they left their Ador agency after accused them of ill -treatment. They renamed NJZ and began to organize their own appearances.
Ador subsequently continued to enforce the Newjeans contracts and, after having accused the group of having tried to sign independent agreements without its approval, filed an injunction against them in January.
Friday, a Seoul court granted Ador the injunction. The decision throws a certain uncertainty around the release of the group’s new song, scheduled for Sunday.
This also means that they will now be confronted with difficulties in redeshing under their new name, NJZ, without dealing with serious financial sanctions for breach of contract.
Newjeans and Ador have been involved in a dramatic dispute since August 2024, when Hybe, the parent company of Ador, would have forced Newjeans’ mentor, Min Hee-Jin.
The group has published an ultimatum demanding that Min is restored – and, when Hybe has refused, it is made public with a number of complaints against the label, including the complaint that it had deliberately undermined their careers.
One of the members of the group, Hanni, also allegedly alleged that she had had harassment in the workplace while working with the label.
During a press conference in November, Newjeans announced its departure from the company, saying that Hybe and Ador had lost the right to represent them as an artists.
They subsequently filed court documents requesting a legal separation from the agency.
Since then, the five members of the group – Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein – have continued to assert their independence, creating a new Instagram account under the name of “Jeanzforfree”.
They also said they would fight to keep their names, and their career, and would remain “Newjeans at heart” even if they lost the fight against Ador.
Newjeans was considered one of the new brightest groups in K-pop, thanks to a playful mixture of R&B from 1990s and pop melodies coated with sugar.
In 2023, they were the eighth best -selling act in the world. Last year, they won an appointment for the best group at the MTV Awards.
