The legal battles involving former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin, Source Music, and Belift Lab have come to a standstill.
The 12th Civil Division of the Seoul Western District Court has changed the hearing dates for the damage suits filed by Source Music and Belift Lab against former CEO Min Hee-jin, totaling approximately 2.5 billion KRW, and designated them as tentative dates.
A tentative date indicates that the court has not yet confirmed the next hearing and will schedule it in the future, effectively pausing the trial. While there may be various reasons, it typically means that the court is awaiting the outcome of related lawsuits before resuming the proceedings.
Currently, former CEO Min Hee-jin is awaiting the appeal trial for a 25.6 billion KRW put option lawsuit against HYBE, to which Source Music and Belift Lab belong. Additionally, she has just begun the trial for a 43 billion KRW damage suit related to NewJeans’ exclusive contract with ADOR, the company she previously led. Although not directly related, the conflict between Min Hee-jin and Source Music/Belift Lab has been mentioned multiple times in both the put option lawsuit and the ADOR lawsuit.
Source Music filed a 500 million KRW damage claim against former CEO Min Hee-jin in July 2024. The central issue stems from Min Hee-jin’s press conference in April 2024, where she claimed that she “personally cast the NewJeans members” and that “HYBE unilaterally broke its initial promise to debut the girl group.” Source Music argues that these statements constitute defamation and have damaged the reputation of Source Music and its artists.
Source Music’s side asserted, “The issue is not individual expressions but the overall context of the press conference. Making unrelated third-party artists, including LE SSERAFIM, perceived negatively due to a private conflict between shareholders is illegal,” repeatedly emphasizing that the social reputation of their singers has been damaged.
In response, Min Hee-jin’s side argued that the press conference was “an inevitable response to HYBE’s audit and unilateral media response.” They claim that it is unfair to judge defamation based on isolated statements and that the expression “gangster” was not intended as a personal insult but as a criticism of the establishment process.
This lawsuit began in January 2025, and after four hearings, it was nearing the first instance verdict in January. However, the hearing was suddenly reopened and has been designated a tentative date ahead of the hearing on the 13th.
Belift Lab filed a 2 billion KRW damage claim against Min Hee-jin in June 2024, prior to Source Music. This lawsuit originates from Min Hee-jin’s “raising suspicions of plagiarism by ILLIT.”
ADOR, under the leadership of Min Hee-jin at the time, stated, “To protect NewJeans and for the healthy development of the Korean music industry and culture, we are publicly stating our position on the ‘ILLIT’s NewJeans Copying Incident.’ Belift Lab, one of HYBE’s labels, debuted the five-member girl group ILLIT in March of this year. After ILLIT’s teaser photos were released, reactions such as ‘I thought it was NewJeans’ exploded online. ILLIT is copying NewJeans in all areas of entertainment activities, including hair, makeup, clothing, choreography, photos, videos, and event appearances. ILLIT is being evaluated as ‘Min Hee-jin style,’ ‘Min Hee-jin type,’ and ‘a copy of NewJeans.'”
Furthermore, ADOR stated, “HYBE’s Chairman Bang Si-hyuk produced ILLIT’s debut album. ILLIT’s copying of NewJeans is not something done solely by the label Belift Lab, but something HYBE is involved in. HYBE, a company that leads K-pop, is blinded by short-term profits and is copying successful cultural content without any hesitation, producing triteness rather than showing novelty.” They added, “There are reactions that it is understandable that ILLIT is similar to NewJeans because they are labels under HYBE. There are even reactions that ADOR and NewJeans may have allowed or understood this similarity. However, these reactions are clearly misunderstandings. The multi-label system is a system to allow each label to independently pursue the music they want, not a system to give a pass to other labels to copy the cultural achievements of one label just because they are affiliated labels.”
ADOR emphasized, “ADOR has never permitted or understood anyone, including HYBE and Belift Lab, to copy the achievements of NewJeans. ADOR does not want NewJeans and ILLIT to be associated in any way. We will never tolerate promotions that portray them as a sibling group simply because they debuted under HYBE’s label.”
In response, Belift Lab stated that the claim that ILLIT plagiarized NewJeans’ plans was not true and filed this lawsuit in June. Belift Lab stated, “ILLIT’s branding strategy and concept were finalized and internally shared on July 21, 2023. The informant sent the so-called plan on August 28, 2023, after that date, so it could not have influenced ILLIT’s concept.”
Along with this lawsuit, Belift Lab announced, “We have filed a complaint against CEO Min Hee-jin for obstruction of business and defamation, as she is causing damage by claiming unilateral false facts against our company and ILLIT.” They added, “Min Hee-jin sacrificed an innocent rookie group for her own personal gain. We express our regret that she is negatively impacting popular culture as a whole by claiming plagiarism as a means of securing her own interests. If we cannot correct the act of cherry-picking and distorting only the positions favorable to her, even in areas that should be judged in professional fields, it will tremendously shrink the creative activities of creators, and Min Hee-jin will not be free from it either.”
This lawsuit, like the Source Music lawsuit, began on the same day and has completed a total of five hearings. The sixth hearing, scheduled for the 27th, has also been designated as a tentative date.
