Min Hee-jin and Source Music Face Off Again in Fourth Hearing Over ₩500 Million Lawsuit
Nov 07, 2025
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The 12th Civil Affairs Department (B) of the Seoul Western District Court will hold the fourth hearing of Source Music's lawsuit against former CEO Min on the 7th.
Adore, Source Music, and Billifrap are all labels under Hive. New Jeans belongs to Audor, Le Seraphim to Source Music, and ILLIT to Billifrap. The lawsuit is an example of a conflict between labels in Hive that has turned into a court battle, and it is also drawing attention as a dispute related to the 'Newzins situation'.
Source Music claims that former CEO Min caused damage to his group Le Seraphim by continuing his untrue claims about the Newzins debut process. Source Music casts the New Jeans himself", "Newzins planned to debut as Hive's first girl group.", "Blocking publicity prior to Leceraphim's debut." points out that former representative Min's remarks are false and demands compensation for damages.
The key issue of the argument is the validity of evidence of former representative Min's KakaoTalk message. In the previous argument, former representative Min claimed that the message was a violation of the Communications Secret Protection Act, but the court said that it is difficult to regard it as illegal evidence given the details of the access to the KakaoTalk account and the circumstances of internal consent"We decided to adopt the evidence.
In particular, it has also been confirmed that former CEO Min repeated the 'data collection instruction' for other girl groups under Hive. Former representative Min called on his aides to systematically visit Hive's problem cases, saying, `There will be more, whether it's ○○○○, XXXX, ○○○, XXX.'
The industry believes that this could have a direct impact on the Source Music lawsuit. In determining the authenticity of former representative Min's 'Leseraphim launch damage claim', the court is likely to use the other group negatively, and whether it was for the purpose of protecting Newzins or strategic denigration to create a justification for independence.
The KakaoTalk conversation was also used as a major basis for judgment in the first trial of the recent Newzins-Dore exclusive contract validity lawsuit. The court ruled in favor of Adore, acknowledging the circumstances in which former representative Min systematically planned public opinion campaigns, litigation responses, and strategic messages for Newzins' independence.
On the other hand, former CEO Min is also in a separate legal battle with Billifrap. When former CEO Min claimed over the ILLIT that he had copied Newzins in all areas, Bilibrap filed a lawsuit for damages worth 2 billion won. The fourth hearing in this regard will be held on the 14th.
rightlight@sportschosun.com
