The legal dispute between former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin and Belift Lab is set to continue in court.
On May 15, the Seoul Western District Court will hold another hearing for Belift Lab’s 2 billion KRW damages lawsuit against Min Hee Jin. The case is resuming about 2 months after the court temporarily paused the process by changing the previous hearing date to an undecided date.
The lawsuit started after Min Hee Jin mentioned Belift Lab’s girl group ILLIT during her emergency press conference in April last year, while speaking about her conflict with HYBE.
At the time, Min Hee Jin claimed that ILLIT was being described with terms such as “Min Hee Jin style,” “Min Hee Jin type,” and “a copy of NewJeans.”
Belift Lab later filed a lawsuit, claiming, “Former CEO Min used an innocent rookie group as a scapegoat for her own personal interests.”
In earlier hearings, Belift Lab argued that Min Hee Jin intentionally spread the plagiarism issue and used public opinion in her favor. Min Hee Jin’s side denied this and said her comments were opinions made to protect the identity of artists.
The two sides also argued over KakaoTalk messages being used as evidence. Min Hee Jin’s side claimed the messages were obtained illegally and should not be accepted. Belift Lab and Source Music denied this, saying the materials were secured with prior consent.
Source Music is also pursuing a separate 500 million KRW damages lawsuit connected to the same press conference.
Source Music claims it suffered damage from Min Hee Jin’s statements about personally casting the NewJeans members and Source Music allegedly neglecting them. That hearing has been moved to May 29.
Min Hee Jin is also involved in other major legal disputes, including a 25.6 billion KRW put option payment lawsuit with HYBE. The first court ruling sided with Min Hee Jin and ordered HYBE to pay 25.6 billion KRW, but HYBE has appealed.
She is also separately involved in a damages lawsuit worth about 43 billion KRW connected to the exclusive contract dispute involving NewJeans.
Source: [1]
