The Dolphin Kidnapping Group has appealed a court ruling requiring them to pay damages to ADOR after a legal dispute over music videos.
January/21/2026 18:47Related Groups & Members
The Dolphin Kidnapping Group has appealed the first-instance ruling against ADOR. On the 21st, according to the legal community, the Dolphin Kidnapping Group submitted an appeal to the Seoul Central District Court the previous day. On the 13th, the Seoul Central District Court ruled in a 1.1 billion won (approximately 110 million yen) damages lawsuit filed by ADOR against the Dolphin Kidnapping Group and director Shin Woosuk, ordering the Dolphin Kidnapping Group to pay ADOR 1 billion won (approximately 100 million yen) plus 12% annual late interest. The Dolphin Kidnapping Group is an advertising production company that has directed numerous music videos for NewJeans. They posted the director's cut of the music video for 'ETA' on the Dolphin Kidnapping Group's YouTube channel. Subsequently, director Shin Woosuk claimed, 'Due to ADOR's request for deletion, all videos related to NewJeans that the Dolphin Kidnapping Group had worked on and uploaded, as well as those planned for future uploads, can no longer be made public.' In response, ADOR clarified the reason for requesting the suspension of posting, stating that the director's cut of the music video for 'ETA' posted by the Dolphin Kidnapping Group included edits that had previously been a point of disagreement with the advertiser and was published without consultation with the advertiser. The conflict between the two parties escalated into a court dispute. The Dolphin Kidnapping Group maintains that there was a verbal agreement made when Min Heejin was the representative of ADOR. Former representative Min Heejin attended the trial directly, claiming that director Shin Woosuk's posting of the work on his channel was industry practice and had been verbally agreed upon. However, ADOR argued that 'the Dolphin Kidnapping Group published the video without prior written consent, violating the business contract,' and stated, 'The claim that director Shin Woosuk (Dolphin Kidnapping Group) is a creator and therefore unaware of the contract does not absolve them from complying with the law and contract.'
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