November 2024, conflicts between the members of NewJeans and their management company Ador flood the media. Claims of mistreatment, contract breaches, fan wars, and much more. Fans were almost completely convinced NewJeans would never return to the stage.
After over a year of legal battles between Ador and NewJeans, the courts final verdict has would be reached. This verdict ultimately leads to a whole new legal battle starting for just one member, Danielle Marsh. So much happened in just one year, lets summarize the events that would lead the members here.
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Get notified of top trending articles like this one every week! (we won't spam you)How It All Started
In April 2024, Hybe Entertainment accuses ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin of attempting to take full control of Ador. In response Min Hee Jin denied the claims and claimed that she was asked to resign because of her complaints about the similarities in between NewJeans and Illit. This claim fuelled the hate Illit was receiving during their debut, as many netizens noticed the groups felt similar at that time.
She also claimed Hybe favoured Le sserafim and neglected NewJeans, which also caused a lot of hate and criticism toward Le sserafim. During this dispute, a lot of evidence was shared publicly from both sides, including Kakao Talk messages. These messages revealed that Min Hee Jin was bad mouthing many groups and idols, including NewJeans. In August 2024, Min Hee Jin was dismissed as the CEO of ADOR.
Shortly after Min Hee Jin's removal, the members of NewJeans sent a certification of contents to their agency ADOR. In this letter they demanded that the agency amend all significant breaches of contract within 14-days, warning that if they are not rectified within the 14-days they would terminate their exclusive contract with ADOR.
The members demands included; reinstating Min Hee Jin as CEO, action regarding HYBE’s industry report that included plans to discard of NewJeans, an official apology from a manager of another HYBE label who told an Artist group to ignore Hanni. They also demanded assessment and resolution of the damages NewJeans suffered due to “album pushing,” and the resolution of the dispute with director Shin Woo Seok, who directed NewJeans’ music videos including “Ditto” and “ETA.” However, none of these demands were met and on the 15th day the members held an emergency press conference and confirmed that they would no longer continue activities under ADOR.
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“New Jeans Never Die”
After the press conference many fans of NewJeans were worried for the future of the group. However, the members reassured fans that they would do their best to win the court case and stay together as a group. They also stated that all decisions made would need the support of all members, that the fight to continue independent from ADOR was an all or nothing decision. The genuine unity in the members moved fans and they created the slogan “NewJeans Never Die”, which trended on across all social media platforms.
In January 2025, the members of NewJeans created an Instagram account, temporarily rebranding as ‘jeanzforfree’ and later ‘officialjeanzforfree’ on TikTok. These accounts were to interact with fans and rename themselves as they couldn't use the name ‘NewJeans’. The members were mainly active on Instagram, posting random and light-hearted content.
They also used this account to ask fans for suggestions on a temporary group name, February 7th , the name ‘NJZ” was announced. That same day it was also announced that NJZ would be performing under their new name for the first time at ComplexCon, which was scheduled to take place from March 21st to 23rd in Hong Kong.
<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NewJeans2023MelonMusicAwardscomposite.jpg#/media/File:NewJeans2023MelonMusicAwards_composite.jpg">By TenAsia on Wikimedia
Legal war: NJZ vs Ador
After NJZ performed at ComplexCon in Hong Kong, where they premiered their new song “Pit Stop”, NJZ announced they would be going on a hiatus. This was because ADOR filed an injunction to prohibit the members from perusing independent activities, contracts, or posts without the approval of ADOR. Once the injunction was put in place the members of NJZ made no public appearances.
Even though the Seoul Central District Court ruled in favour of ADOR, NJZ made their stance on not returning clear. The legal representatives of NJZ stated that the members respect the court's decision but given that their relationship of trust with ADOR has completely collapsed, they believe it is impossible to return to ADOR and continue their activities in the entertainment industry in a normal manner.
Back in January, a similar statement was made where they went into more depth as to why their trust with ADOR was broken. Stating that ADOR has failed to fulfil their responsibilities as an agency to protect their artists and support their growth. Thet claim that throughout their activities as NewJeans, they faced numerous obstacles, both big and small.
That the agency even disguised their intent to “suspend our entertainment careers indefinitely” as a “long-term break,” essentially abandoning and replacing NewJeans. On the morning of October 30, the Seoul Central District Court ruled in favour of ADOR’s lawsuit, confirming that the exclusive contracts with the five NewJeans members are valid. The court ruled that there was no evidence proving that ADOR neglected their management obligations. The court also ruled that much of Newjeans claims lacked sufficient evidence. Later that same day the legal representatives of NJZ made a statement on the members intentions to appeal the court's decision.
On November 12th ,2025 it was revealed that ADOR had met with NewJeans members Haerin and Hyein and their parents. After discussion with the two members had decided to respect the court's decision and return to ADOR.
Shortly after that statement was released, the remaining members Minji, Hanni, and Danielle released a separate statement announcing that they recently decided to return to ADOR. In their statement they clarified that their intent to return was relayed late as one member was in Antarctica at that time, and as ADOR was not responding, they were inevitably announcing this through a separate statement. ADOR’s response to this statement was, “we are checking on Minji, Hanni, and Danielle's intent to return.”
These two statements came as a surprise to fans as the members of NewJeans were very firm on their stance against ADOR and even claimed they were planning to appeal the court's decision. Besides for the fact that everyone was curious about what happened to change their plans to appeal, there were bigger questions being asked by netizens. Why were there two separate statements?
Why was ADOR not responding? Was this to make people think there was conflict between the NewJeans, to contradict their statement that they were united? These questions have yet to be answered but on December 29th , ADOR released a statement on the remaining 3 members of NewJeans. They revealed that Hanni visited Korea with her family and engaged in long, in-depth conversations with ADOR and after some discussion, Hanni decided to respect the court’s ruling and continue with ADOR. However, Minji is still in an ongoing discussion with ADOR.
In Danielle’s case, ADOR determined that it would be difficult for her to continue together as a NewJeans member and an ADOR artist. The agency revealed their intent to terminate her exclusive contract. Ador claims that they plan to sue Danielle for pursuing independent activities and attempting to sign contracts without the approval of the agency.
In addition, they plan to pursue legal accountability for one member of Danielle’s family and former CEO Min Hee Jin, who they claim bear significant responsibility for precipitating this dispute and for NewJeans’ departure and delayed return. It was later revealed that ADOR has no proof that Danielle attempted to sign any contracts. Danielle recently opened a personal Instagram called ‘dazzibelle’. She also did an emotional and teary live stream were shea stated that she fought desperately to stay with her members and that there is a space in heart for each member. She reassured fans that this is the not the end but the beginning.
Final Thoughts
From the moment NewJeans spoke out about all the abuse and mistreatment they experienced in ADOR, they were heavily criticized by both fans and people who heard about the events that took place. Just scrolling through TikTok or Twitter you would see thousands of posts with millions of views hating on them. Saying that they'd never win, that they ruined their own careers, netizens calling them hypocrites, mean girls, and even villains.
Most netizens believed that even if they did win no label would want them because of the 'drama'. What netizens failed to remember was that they are all still very young, the oldest two members were freshly 20 at the time.
As we've seen throughout the years, the entertainment industry isn't the kindest, especially when it comes to young talent who are seen as naive and easy to control by the industry. Though many supported NewJeans, there were thousands who didn't even believe them because they believe that's how the industry is, they should just endure it. What I struggle to understand about this whole thing, is how can people believe a huge corporation over a group of teens and barely adults.
It is believed by netizens that quite a few idols , if not most have been or are being mistreated by their companies. The same netizens hating on NewJeans are saying Idols should speak out more, but why would they? When Idols are constantly treated as these less than human dolls for your disposal.
