Actor Park Seo Joon has officially won his lawsuit against a restaurant that used his face in advertisements without permission — but fans are surprised by how small the payout turned out to be.
On July 2, the Seoul Eastern District Court ruled that the restaurant owner, referred to as A, must pay Park Seo Joon 5 million KRW (around $3,600 USD) for using his image in banners and online ads without his consent. The court recognized this as a violation of portrait rights, but reduced the compensation from the 6 billion KRW (~$4.3 million USD) that Park originally asked for.
The issue started after a famous scene from Park Seo Joon’s 2018 drama What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim?, where he eats soy sauce crab to impress his girlfriend’s family, aired on tvN. About a year later, the restaurant that served as the filming location started promoting itself using that scene.
The restaurant put up banners that said things like:
- “The place where Park Seo Joon devoured soy sauce crab”
- “The soy sauce crab restaurant that even Park Seo Joon loved”
These ads were displayed both inside and outside the restaurant from August 2019 to September 2023, and the owner even ran search ads on Naver for about six years.
When Park found out, he filed a lawsuit, claiming his image was used without his permission, violating his portrait rights. He demanded 6 billion KRW in damages — based on what he would normally receive for an endorsement over six years — and asked for a court order banning the restaurant from ever using his image again.
The restaurant’s defense argued that the scene was already public from the drama, and said it was common for filming locations to promote themselves this way. The owner insisted that Park Seo Joon’s image was not damaged and that there was no legal issue.
While the court agreed with Park Seo Joon that his portrait rights had been violated, they pointed out that the restaurant was small, and that the banners and ads had already been taken down.
For this reason, they only awarded 5 million KRW in damages and did not grant the ban on future use, saying it was no longer necessary.
The ruling is now final, as neither Park Seo Joon nor the restaurant filed an appeal.
Even with the reduced payout, fans are applauding Park for standing up for his rights and setting a precedent for unauthorized image use in ads.
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