NewJeans' latest legal obstacle from their own manager, ADOR

NewJeans is being held back at every turn by the latest developments in their relationship with their management, ADOR. Earlier in K-pop news, the girl group said that they had "severed ties" with their management in November, but ADOR is still pursuing legal action against the members, reports Korea JoongAng Daily.

It all started in April 2024, when HYBE decided to do an internal audit of ADOR, the company behind NewJeans and a subsidiary company of HYBE. This sparked a whole battle between the then-CEO of ADOR, Min Hee-jin, and HYBE.

The conflict between Min Hee-jin and HYPE can be considered one of K-pop’s biggest legal battles and internal disputes when Min Hee-jin decided to accuse HYBE and Belift Lab, another HYBE subsidiary company, of several things.

What was most notable of the scandal was this: Min Hee-jin had accused Belift Lab, of having plagrarised from NewJeans to produce the concept and songs for their girl group, ILLIT, reports Korea JoongAng Daily.

This spiraled into back-and-forth lawsuits between her, HYBE, and Belift Lab, which resulted in Min Hee-jin stepping down from her role in ADOR and resigning as CEO of the company. Forbes reports that after initially stepping down as CEO to move into a role as an internal director, Min Hee-jin eventually fully left ADOR in November 2024.

The conflict between Min Hee-jin, HYBE, and Belift Lab was a huge deal as the involved parties are all big names in K-pop who are responsible for and manage the powerhouse groups in the industry, namely being BTS, NewJeans, and ILLIT. And many K-pop fans were worried about the fate of NewJeans as the girl group themselves had involved themselves in the drama.

According to Billboard, NewJeans members had involved themselves by openly showing their support for Min Hee-jin on multiple fronts, such as by sharing a letter addressing Min Hee-jin on their Instagram, declaring support for Min Hee-jin at an awards ceremony, and demanding the reinstatement of Min Hee-jin as CEO of ADOR collectively on YouTube.

The situation had even reached an official South Korean parliamentary audit hearing last October, according to Allkpop, when Hanni from NewJeans stated that NewJeans had been bullied by other companies in HYBE, strongly implying that HYBE and other subsidiary companies under the label had been orchestrating and covering up targeted bullying incidents against NewJeans members since.

As Teen Vogue reported, NewJeans held an emergency press conference in November declaring that they had severed ties with ADOR, and that their contracts have been terminated with the company the next day.

Despite mentioning that the girl group would not receive any penalties for the early termination of their contracts with ADOR and, subsequently, HYBE, Soompi reported that ADOR issued an official statement in November insisting that the contracts are still valid.

Korea JoongAng Daily reports that despite the say from ADOR, NewJeans had indeed taken “all the legal steps” to process the termination of their contracts, and from a legal standpoint, the contracts they had with ADOR have been terminated. However, ADOR still has the means to contest this in the eyes of the court by filing a request for a "legal judgement".

Indeed, ADOR has filed a legal request on December 3 to the South Korean courts to judge on whether the contracts between the company and NewJeans remain valid, despite the legal action taken by the members of the girl group, reports another Korea JoongAng Daily report.

Korea JoongAng Daily also mentioned that ADOR had also added "an indirect warning to other companies about becoming involved in the dispute", which could potentially leave NewJeans in a difficult position of being isolated in the K-pop industry.

Another report from Korea JoongAng Daily reports that NewJeans had held an official press conference addressing the developments in their dispute with ADOR, and revealed that since the announcement they made in November, HYBE and ADOR staff have "raided the staff and producers who have been supporting [them], confiscating their laptops without warning".

Image: ADOR

In January 2025, ADOR filed yet another legal case against NewJeans, and this time it filed an injunction to prevent the girl group from signing independent advertising contracts and activities without permission from the agency, reports The Korea Times.

Image: ADOR

According to Yonhap News, ADOR has rationalised their filing of a new legal suit against NewJeans by claiming that their doing so was for the good of the K-pop industry, that what NewJeans are currently doing is "[destabilizing] the K-pop sector" and "[undermining] investment". 

Image: ADOR

Despite the alienating move, ADOR emphasizes that they have activities planned for NewJeans to continue operating as a group under the label and desires for the group to "move forward collaboratively", reports Allkpop.

Image: ADOR

Follow Showbizz Daily to stay informed about the latest in K-pop