NewJeans Leaves Largest K-Pop Agency After Mistreatment Claims: What Led to $423 Million Loss

NewJeans is looking for a new home.

In a shocking move, the beloved K-pop group has left their agency Hybe after a months-long management dispute and officially terminated their contract.

According to NBC Philadelphia, the announcement of them leaving the agency has sent shares plunging as much as 6.97% on Nov. 29. This equates to a $423 million loss.

NewJeans announced that they would be leaving the agency after Hybe sub-label ADOR had breached contract with the band.

"Staying here would be a waste of time and would only bring pain, mentally," member Hanni said.

"There is nothing we can gain professionally from staying here, so the five of us see no reason to remain at ADOR," she continued.

The news outlet reports that NewJeans had previously sent a legal notice to Hybe with a list of demands to the agency. One of their demands was to reinstate former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin. After that fell through, they threatened to terminate their contracts.

Additionally, the list of demands included "dealing with" a Hybe internal report that said to "get rid of NewJeans and start anew."

Hanni has claimed that there was "mistreatment not just toward us but also toward our staff, countless preventions and contradictions, deliberate miscommunication, and manipulation regarding multiple areas." However, she did not explain herself further.

The news of NewJeans leaving the agency comes after Hanni's workplace harassment case had been thrown out.

Hanni previously testified in court and told the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee: "We have a floor in our building where we do hair and makeup and, at that time, I was waiting in the hallway because my hair and makeup was done first... I said hello to all of them [executives], and then they came back about five or 10 minutes later. On her way out, [the manager] made eye contact with me, turned to the rest of the group, and said, 'Ignore her like you didn't see her.' I don't understand why she would say something like that in the work environment."

She also claims that upper management in Hybe had given her the cold shoulder in the past.

"Since my debut [in NewJeans], we ran into a person in a high-up position many times, but they never greeted me when I greeted them," she said.

"I understood from living in Korea that I have to be polite to older people and that's part of the culture - but I think it's just disrespectful as a human being to not greet us, regardless of our professional status. There was a certain vibe [of disrespect] that I felt within the company," Hanni added.

The NewJeans member further alleged that employees of the company had said some nasty things about the group on an app called Blind. She also alleges that Hybe's PR team downplayed the group's success.

However, her case was thrown out from court. The Seoul Regional Office of Employment and Labor shared that the singer does not qualify as an employee under the law.

"It is difficult to consider Hanni a worker under the Labor Standards Act, so the case was administratively closed," a statement to Billboard from the Korean Labor office said.

NewJeans made their debut in 2022 and scored hits like "OMG" and "Super Shy." The members include: Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein.

Tags

Kpop, News