NewJeans vs Ador: Court Orders Mediation in $15M K-Pop Contract Battle

NewJeans / Courtesy of X (twitter)

A Seoul court has ordered K-pop sensation NewJeans and their agency Ador to try mediation, following an intense legal dispute over the legality of their contract. The Seoul Central District Court set the mediation for August 14 in private and is requiring the presence of all NewJeans members Minji, Hani, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein. The court took the step to mediate following a two hour oral argument hearing, where both sides presented their respective positions amid an ongoing dispute over the NewJeans members' claims that Ador had breached both part of the contract and their fiduciary duty to them.

1. NJZ were the biggest victims of the MHJ/ADOR vs Hybe drama. Hybe's targeted removal of their CEO was done with no regards to the careers and future of Newjeans. Hybe had no alternative plans in place and had not even consulted with newjeans before the removal. pic.twitter.com/95ZAziaf55

— may (@Maydaibunni) July 25, 2025

Ador says it invested about $15 million in NewJeans, including $5 million for their first album and $1.4 million on music videos alone. The agency says that the group's move to cancel its exclusive contract after only two years was a breach of contract only orchestrated by the former CEO Min Hee-jin. Court documents show KakaoTalk messages indicating that Min reached out to the members' parents to provide a basis for terminating the contract -- for example, by drafting protest emails and developing a seven-month long campaign to generate public opinion.

it didn’t happen bc there was cctv evidence😭 the court sided w ador multiple times bc newjeans make baseless claims and ador actually has the receipts. u js wanna believe the small girl vs huge corporation so bad, they’re not the victims u want them to be

— 🍀 (@mokareru) July 27, 2025

NewJeans' legal team asserted that a retaliatory audit was performed by Hybe, Ador's parent company, against Min Hee-jin after Min Hee-jin expressed plagiarism issues regarding a fellow girl group ILLIT. The members' lawyers argued that the current Ador management was composed primarily of personnel that Hybe controls and not of Min Hee-jin and, thus, does not reflect the ownership or company that the members initially supported their success. Their argument cited other actions such as an alleged suggestion of NewJean's member Hani to "ignore" an ILLIT manager where security footage showing it was mysteriously deleted following its 30-day retention policy.

The court said that should the mediation process fail, a decision will be issued no earlier than October 30. During the proceedings, NewJeans' representatives particularly suggested that they might return to Ador with conditions if they could be put 'back to where they were before April 2024.' However, considering Min Hee-jin's return to the agency is unlikely, we will not have faith that successful mediation will take place, even with various caveats. The case manifests the kind of rising tensions seen within South Korea's entertainment industry regarding contracts for artists and the control over artists by management. Both sides are claiming breach of trust in what has come to be one of K-pop's most followed legal battles.