Looks like things are heating up between CEO Min Hee Jin of ADOR, NewJeans agency, and the parent company HYBE, heading towards a legal showdown. Hive kicked off an audit questioning CEO Min’s takeover attempt, and in return, ADOR fired back with the ‘ILLIT’s copying NewJeans incident’.
In an official statement, ADOR revealed their position on ILLIT copying NewJeans style, stating, “Ironically, the cultural achievements of NewJeans are being seriously infringed upon by HYBE,” and added, “the very entity that should have prevented it.”
Further, the agency stated, “Multi-label is a system that allows each record label to independently produce the music it wants,” and added, “in no way a system that allows other record labels to follow a label’s cultural achievements just because it is an affiliated label. ADOR has never allowed or consented to copying NewJeans for anyone, including HYBE and BELIFT LAB.”
ADOR accused HYBE’s Chairman Bang Si Hyuk, who was involved in producing ILLIT’s debut album, for imitation of NewJeans.
The label criticized HYBE, a prominent player in K-pop, for prioritizing short-term gains and replicating successful cultural content without hesitation, rather than innovating. ADOR argued that this approach leads to producing cliché content.
The agency emphasized that the music-making system should not provide a free pass for affiliated labels to copy another label’s cultural achievements.
In other news, Dispatch shared more details about Min Hee Jin’s conflict against HYBE, mentioning incidents of internal abuse. The Korean media outlet shared CEO Min Hee Jin has been aiming for independence for a while.
She allegedly tried to acquire HYBE’s shares in Ador by reaching out to insiders and obtaining sensitive internal data from HYBE. Reports suggest she even used a HYBE employee to access confidential information. HYBE has gathered substantial evidence of Min Heejin’s misconduct, including information theft and in-house mistreatment.