By: Soomin Ryu
On September 11th of 2024, the infamous K-pop girl group “Newjeans” first raised awareness of their mistreatment from their company Hybe labels through a livestream, discussing unacceptable behaviors done by their company towards them, and a list of demands towards their label ADOR, with a set date of 14 days, in which they threatened ADOR of breaking the contract if the demands were not met throughout the 14 days given. With the failure of ADOR meeting these requirements, Newjeans officially declared a press conference which occurred on November 28th 2024, stating their intention in leaving HYBE as soon as the next day.
Newjeans first debuted on July 22nd under ADOR’s executive director Min Hee Jin, who also went through multiple press conferences, which included exposing HYBE’s wrongdoings and claiming the K-pop group ILLIT had plagiarized Newjean’s themes and songs. This eventually led to Min Hee Jin resigning permanently from HYBE.
The press conference on November 28th led to legal debates on whether or not Newjeans is still in ADOR’s contract. Despite Newjeans’s statement on how they have the right to break the contract and leave ADOR without paying any fees, ADOR has already provided multiple legal documents and evidence, proving their innocence and how they kept the contract. Additionally, foreign member Hanni relies on ADOR for Korean citizenship, and breaking the contract would possibly mean being deported. However, Newjeans still continue to fight for their independence, opening instagram accounts with their new name NJZ on December 15th of 2024.
The debate of independence led to a court case on March 8th 2025. ADOR was able to prove that they kept their contract by giving evidence, such as how Newjenas had at least 50 staff members protecting them at all times. Additionally, Newjeans were given amazing opportunities, such as collaborating with designer brands like Gucci, and fast food stores such as Mcdonalds, and even getting the title of “BTS’s little sister”, which allegedly proves that Newjean’s arguments of “HYBE and ADOR doesn’t like us” doesn’t really make sense when such proof of grand opportunities exists. Additionally, there are claims stating that some of the evidence Newjeans used against HYBE are fake and made up by Min Hee Jin. This ultimately led to the loss of Newjeans in the court case, and the suspension of all activities outside of ADOR, claiming NJZ illegal.
After Newjean’s performance on March 23rd for ComplexCon, they stated that it would be their last performance for a while. However, after ADOR won the court case, they stated that they would support Newjeans as much as they can in order to rebuild friendship, so long as Newjeans cooperates. The next court case will be held on April 3rd 2025, which continues to fight about the contracts.