After weeks of ongoing controversy surrounding K-pop girl group LOONA and their management group Blockberry Creative, four members of the group have won their lawsuits against the company. The other seven have either lost their cases, or did not participate in the lawsuit.
Following a ruling by the Civil Affairs Division 1 of the Seoul Northern District Court, the four winning members Heejin, Kim Lip, Jinsoul, and Choerry will have their contracts suspended and will now be able to pursue their own creative activities.
The other members — Haseul, Yeojin, Yves, Olivia Hye, and Gowon — did not win their lawsuit, and will remain labelmates of Blockberry. Two members, Vivi and Hyunjin, chose not to file lawsuits against BlockBerry.
Bad blood between the girl group and their management team was first brought to light when former bandmate Chuu alleged years of mistreatment that ranged from not being allowed to go outside for more than 20 minutes a day, to having to fork over a large percentage of earnings from her solo brand deals.
In 2017, Chuu signed an exclusive contract that allowed her keep all of the earnings from her solo activities and split her group earnings 70 percent. But in November 2022, BlockBerry announced their decision to drop Chuu from the group, citing abuse of power and improper behavior.
Fans of LOONA, called Orbits, have rallied around the girls. BlockBerry's decision to drop Chuu led to backlash from fans and is presumed to have led to the lawsuits of the other members of the group.
LOONA was originally set to release their newest EP in early 2023, however it was postponed by BlockBerry weeks before its intended release date of January 3. While many fans online have said they would want to see LOONA re-debut as a group of 12 under different management, the actual fate of the remaining 7 is unclear.
\u201cAll I wanna do is take all the LOONA members out to in-n-out, let each of them order and eat a piping hot double double animal style then set them free in the world after giving them a hug \ud83e\udd72 Justice for the remaining members that lost the case!\u201d— Kim Chi (@Kim Chi) 1673666099
\u201cme contacting my lawyer to see how we can help the other 7 girls in LOONA free themselves from that contract\u201d— Chrissy \ud83c\udfae (@Chrissy \ud83c\udfae) 1673626891
\u201c[ADMIN/POLL] If LOONA were to redebut as 12, which concept do you think would you be the most excited for?\u201d— \ud83e\udd8c\ud83d\udc8c (@\ud83e\udd8c\ud83d\udc8c) 1673031285
Photo by The Chosunilbo JNS /Imazins via Getty Images
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