Experts Report On How Much NewJeans May Have To Pay To Terminate Their Contracts

NewJeans is currently stuck in the middle between HYBE and ADOR, in the feud between HYBE and ADOR’s CEO Min Hee Jin. HYBE accused Min Hee Jin of trying to gain control of the management rights to ADOR, while Min Hee Jin has since denied the accusation. She retaliated with allegations that she had filed internal complaints about ILLIT plagiarizing NewJeans, only to be slapped with a sudden audit and ousting. She denies ever trying to usurp power.

While the truth is still unclear, some feel that her sudden accusation of plagiarism may have been done in a bid to avoid paying the hefty penalty fees for breaking of contracts. Not only will she have to pay NewJeans’ breaking of contract if she wants to take them with her, but she also has to pay the breach fees of her own employment contract with HYBE.

In NewJeans’ case, according to Korea’s Fair Trade Commission’s standard exclusive management contract, the fees that one has to pay for a termination of contract is the sum of the average monthly sales for the previous two years, multiplied by the number of months remaining in the contract. They will also have to pay back the investments that they received. Although no one knows how much money the company invested into NewJeans, an entertainment industry official claims that the average cost for a girl group is between ₩7.00 billion KRW (about $5.10 million USD) to ₩1.00 billion KRW (about $729,000 USD).

NewJeans’ remaining contract period is said to be around 60 months. They also recovered all its investments thanks to their success, and were paid a salary after just two months of debut. This allows them to be exempt from paying back the investments, as is per usual for other less successful celebrities. NewJeans’ average monthly income has been estimated to be ₩3.50 billion KRW (about $2.55 million USD) during their debut era. Going based off that, they will have to pay at least ₩210 billion KRW (about $153 million USD) in penalties. The amount is probably more, as their income has increased more than the original debut era income.

Information for the numbers was provided by Business Post Korea, and may contain inaccuracies.