Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Hey, remember former MOMOLAND member Daisy? Back at the start of 2020, she came forward with claims that Finding Momoland was rigged and the members were made to pay for it. The rebuttal to that was honestly quite pedantic, and she responded by revealing further details about being denied a MOMOLAND return.
Well she took MLD Entertainment to court over being charged for being a part of the survival show, and the court ruled that the company must pay her what she earned.
According to the insiders on October 10th, the Seoul Central District Court declared, “MLD Entertainment shall pay Yoo Jung Ahn (Daisy’s legal name) her unpaid earnings, totaling 79,260,000 KRW (~ $66,382 USD).” MLD Entertainment then deducted about 66 million KRW, which was the total production cost of the show evenly split among 10 contestants, from Daisy’s earnings claiming that she should be responsible for the production cost of the survival show as well. Daisy later sued her former label claiming it is unfair to withhold part of her earnings for the cost that was incurred before she signed the contract with the label. Court sided with the plaintiff, Daisy. “Contract is effective since the signed date unless otherwise specified. The phrase ‘pre-debut’ on the contract refers to the phase from which the plaintiff signed the contract to the actual debut date. Further, there is no evidence beyond reasonable doubt to assume that this is customary practice in the entertainment industry.” Court also ordered MLD Entertainment to pay about 13 million KRW which was unpaid to Daisy. However, the court did not side with Daisy on her additional damage claim of 10 million KRW.
Significant win for Daisy and it sure seems like she always deserved this judgment. However, I am actually a bit disappointed that they didn’t go further given that MLDE sure seemed to basically be holding her hostage with demanding a cancellation fee around a $1 million despite no intention to do anything with her.
Of course, I’ve obviously learned not to expect much when companies go up against a single idol and so I’m glad she’s won. But I also feel bad for the opportunities and time she’s lost, and for MOMOLAND in general given how MLDE seems to have botched the ascent of the group.
