The legal drama between NewJeans and their agency ADOR has taken another turn — and fans are watching closely.
According to reports on June 25, all five members of NewJeans have chosen not to appeal the court’s decision that bans them from promoting independently or signing their own ad deals. With the appeal deadline now passed, the court ruling is final, and the members must stay under ADOR’s management — at least for now.
Back on June 17, the Seoul High Court dismissed the members’ request to cancel the previous ruling, which had blocked them from working separately from ADOR. Just hours after that decision, ADOR uploaded a “Jeans Clip” video on NewJeans’ official YouTube channel, showing behind-the-scenes footage of music video shoots for “Super Shy,” “ETA,” and “OMG.”
Though the video featured no new footage of the members, ADOR says it is simply carrying out its duties as their agency by keeping up with content uploads.
This move has left fans confused — especially since NewJeans announced their contract termination last year in a public press conference, stating that their trust with ADOR and HYBE was broken.
Some fans started speculating about a possible reconciliation when Danielle appeared at a brand event in Kyoto, Japan on June 18, accompanied by ADOR staff. However, ADOR responded by saying the members are still attending pre-scheduled brand events as agreed upon — not because the situation has been resolved.
NewJeans has also stated that they will continue to fulfill existing commitments, separate from the ongoing legal battle.
To recap, in January, ADOR filed a lawsuit asking the court to confirm the exclusivity of their contracts and to block the members from doing solo activities or signing their own endorsement deals. The court ruled entirely in ADOR’s favor, also granting a financial penalty if any of the five members breach the court’s decision — a whopping 1 billion KRW (about 720,000 USD) per member, totaling 5 billion KRW.
While the main lawsuit over the contract is still in trial, NewJeans has been inactive since their appearance at Hong Kong FlexCON, with no updates on comeback plans.
With ADOR still uploading old content and the group locked into their contracts, fans are wondering — what will happen next for NewJeans?
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