As longtime K-pop fans, you might be fed up when you watch your beloved idols get mistreated, abandoned, and sometimes even harassed by their own agency. Why the heck didn’t they do something? Well, NewJeans might have just answered your question. With the May 2025 court decision on NewJeans VS ADOR injunction, the group paid the cost of saying no to the system. But still, what did ADOR do to NewJeans, and did they really lose the court case?
Dive deeper into the result with us and see how NewJeans might be ending the era of blind obedience in K-pop soon.
What Did ADOR Do to NewJeans?
Now that NewJeans and ADOR court injunction case decision has come to this point, the better question might be—what didn’t they do when it mattered?
According to NewJeans, everything began falling apart after HYBE ousted CEO Min Hee Jin. NewJeans claims ADOR failed to protect them during the management shake-up. And even after repeated calls for corrective action, ADOR kept on ignoring them.
ADOR denies this, of course. They say NewJeans is trying to justify their action. And that they had made their decision to leave in the first place, and everything followed were just simple excuses to make that happen. In ADOR’s version, the contract was still valid. The company has fulfilled its management duties, and the group simply turned away first.
But instead of settling behind closed doors, NewJeans chose court. And in doing so, they chose transparency over tradition.
On June 4, 2025, when the Seoul Central District Court asked both sides if they were open to compromise, ADOR responded cautiously: “If the court comes to a decision regarding this case, then a settlement will be easy enough.”
But NewJeans didn’t wait for the outcome—they made their position clear: the trust is broken, and they’re not turning back.
“The relationship of trust has been completely shattered.
We have crossed a river and can no longer return.”
NewJeans.
Did NewJeans Lose the Court Injunction and the Case Lawsuit?
So, now you may be asking: did NewJeans lose the court case?
Well, not the whole case, really. Just the injunction battle, for now.
The court reaffirmed an earlier ruling that bans NewJeans from doing anything without ADOR’s approval. There will be no independent promotions, performances, or contracts. And if they disobey, it’s 1 billion KRW per member, per violation.
This means if all five members were to release a song and perform it independently, they could face a penalty of up to 10 billion KRW (approximately 7.3 million USD), as each activity would count as a separate violation under the current injunction terms.
That’s the NewJeans court injunction you’ve probably seen trending: not a verdict on the contract’s validity, but a restriction placed until that question is answered.
But even when it seems that the court sided with ADOR in this injunction decision, they have also granted part of NewJeans request for clarity.
ADOR is now required to disclose what internal decisions were made—if any—after Min Hee Jin was removed.
Did they discuss how it would impact the members? Did they meet about protecting them? What were the real actions the company took to protect NewJeans after Min Hee Jin’s dismissal? And can they provide proof? The court wants those answers on paper and on the record.
And this is a silver lining, showing that NewJeans did not lose the court case just yet.
Why “No” Is the Most Powerful Word in K-pop Right Now
If you’ve followed K-pop for years, you know this isn’t how it usually goes. Most idols stay quiet until they’re released. Most legal fights end in silence, not confrontation. Most artists—especially young women—are taught that loyalty means endurance, no matter the cost.
But NewJeans refused to follow that script.
For now, you might be thinking that NewJeans seems to have lost the court injunction case. However, they didn’t accept the injunction and fade into inactivity.
Also, they didn’t entertain the idea of working things out for image preservation. Instead, they walked into the courtroom and made it clear that they believed their relationship with ADOR is beyond repair, and they’re not coming back.
Now, this kind of honesty is completely rare and risky in this industry. And yet, this might be exactly what the next generation needs to see.
Gen Z Isn’t Here to Play by Old Rules
Now that the court decision has come to this point, you have to realize that the injunction is no longer merely about NewJeans and ADOR.
This entire dispute pulls back the curtain on something much bigger: a system that builds idols on contracts that last longer than trust. It’s about how loyalty has been mistaken for obedience, and how silence is too often demanded in exchange for success.
Most of all, it’s about a new generation—maybe yours—that’s no longer willing to be managed like they don’t have minds of their own.
NewJeans might have defined 4th-gen K-pop. But what you’re witnessing now goes beyond generational labels. This is the start of K-pop’s post-obedience era.
They didn’t settle. They didn’t go quiet to protect their image. And they didn’t stop because they ran out of momentum—they stopped because they refused to perform under a system that they no longer believed in.
And if you’ve followed them since debut or even when you just caught glimpses of them through headlines, you’re actually witnessing a group who is dare enough to choose integrity over activity, risk over comfort, and, above all, themselves—even when it costs everything.
NewJeans x ADOR Court Injunction Case: What’s Next?
Finally, the court will meet again on July 24 for the next hearing. By then, NewJeans will keep fighting to prove their contract is no longer valid. Meanwhile, ADOR will also have to prove that they had, in fact, fulfilled their duties on their end.
As part of the court’s partial acceptance of NewJeans’ motion for clarity, ADOR must now disclose whether they had conducted internal discussions or board-level actions to protect the members after Min Hee Jin’s removal.
This Isn’t the End—It’s the Turning Point
By now, the court has drawn its line. But the real story doesn’t stop there.
The legal fight isn’t over. But what NewJeans has done already is something far more rare in K-pop: they drew their own line and stood by it.
They didn’t perform just to keep up appearances. They didn’t protect their image at the cost of their voice. And they didn’t let silence become a strategy for survival. And by doing so, NewJeans opened a new chapter—not just for themselves, but for every artist watching.
Whether they intended it or not, NewJeans has become a symbol of resistance—challenging a system that rarely allows young idols to speak, let alone walk away
Because in an industry where staying quiet has always meant staying safe, NewJeans chose something else. They chose not to go back. They chose not to pretend. And they chose not to hand their silence over just because it was expected.
So when the next hearing comes on July 24, it won’t just be about contracts. It’ll be about what kind of K-pop future you believe in.
And no matter where you stand, one thing is clear: the post-obedience era didn’t begin with a win. It began the moment they said no—and followed through with action.
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