- The Korea Management Federation (KMF) has issued a statement amid group NewJeans’ unilateral contract termination with agency ADOR Entertainment.
- The statement criticizes NewJeans, leveling accusations that the group “never had the consideration nor the intention of upholding the mutual effort required in a contractual relationship,” while at the same time dismissing the group’s termination declaration as “ridiculous.”
- The statement went on to assert that termination must be approached with the purpose of maintaining the legitimacy of the contractual framework, proceeding to label NewJeans’ methods as “vicious.”
The Korea Management Federation (KMF) has issued a statement as NewJeans’ public feud with ADOR and HYBE intensifies.
The Korea Management Federation (KMF), a separate entity from the Korean Entertainment Management Assocation (KEMA), issued a statement on December 3rd, claiming that, “The intensifying feud between ADOR and NewJeans is having an adverse effect on our pop culture and arts industries.”
The KMF went on to say that, “Our popular culture and arts industry respects the contractual relationships between artists and their agencies, which was built up over several decades of good faith.”
“The arising of a simple problem cannot be sufficient grounds for contract termination…The course of action taken by NewJeans shows that they never had the consideration nor the intention of upholding the mutual effort required in a contractual relationship,” adding that “Their claims [that the contract is unilaterally terminated] are ridiculous.”
The statement went on to say that, “The assertion that a contract may be unilaterally terminated will have hugely detrimental effects in the trust required for the signing of exclusive contracts. We must be cautious going forward.”
The standard exclusive contract from the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism includes this clause: “If one party violates the contents stipulated in this contract, the other party may demand correction of the violation for a period of 14 days to the responsible party, and if the violation is not corrected within that period or cannot be corrected, the contract may be canceled or terminated.“
Regarding this, the KMF said, “If anyone could terminate a contract through a mere declaration, how could their effectiveness and validity of be upheld? Who would be willing to invest based on such flimsy contracts?“
Further, the statement stressed that, “Contract termination should be approached carefully and under the premise of the protection and preservation of the legitimacy of the contractual framework.”
Regarding the principle of “invest first, recover later, the KMF asserted that, “Due to the initial investment required from an agency to the artist, the former is inherently the more vulnerable party. There are currently no laws in place which take the company’s position into consideration…The vicious methods with which NewJeans has approached this relationship may shake the very foundations of our popular culture and arts industries.“
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