ADOR partially wins damages suit against NewJeans music video production company

ADOR, the agency behind girl group NewJeans, partially won a damages suit in its first trial against production company Dolphiners Films and director Shin Woo-seok, who directed the music videos for “Ditto” (2022) and “ETA” (2023).

Girl group NewJeans [ADOR]

ADOR, the agency behind girl group NewJeans, partially won a damages suit in its first trial against production company Dolphiners Films and director Shin Woo-seok, who directed the music videos for “Ditto” (2022) and “ETA” (2023).

The Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday ruled that Dolphiners Films must pay ADOR 1 billion won ($678,000) along with an annual interest of 12 percent. However, the court dismissed ADOR's claims against director Shin.

The dispute began in August 2024, when Dolphiners Films uploaded the director’s cut for NewJeans’s “ETA” music video to its official YouTube channel.

According to Shin, ADOR responded by requesting that the director's cut — along with all NewJeans-related content on the “Ban Hee-soo Channel,” an unofficial YouTube fan account that Shin operated — be removed.

ADOR denied asking for such an all-encompassing removal.

“We only requested the director’s cut of ‘ETA’ be taken down,” the agency said, calling the upload an “unauthorized disclosure.” “We never asked for the deletion or halt of all NewJeans-related content from channels. Shin is spreading false information.”

Shin subsequently filed a defamation complaint, claiming that ADOR's statement damaged his reputation.

ADOR countered by filing a lawsuit against Dolphiners Films. It argued the unauthorized publication of NewJeans content — to which the agency holds ownership rights — constituted an illegal act.

During the third hearing in the case, former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin appeared as a witness and testified that both parties had made a verbal agreement to post the director’s cut of “ETA.” She criticized ADOR’s position, calling it “foolish and absurd.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom. BY HYEON YE-SEUL [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]