Court rules Chuu’s contract with Blockberry is nullified and company must also pay her legal fees

LOONA member Chuu, whose contract dispute with Blockberry Creative started a cascade of Ls for the company, has recently had the court rule in her favor and sees her contract with BBC officially nullified. Notably, the company will have to cover the legal fees incurred by both sides due to the lawsuit.

On the 17th, in the lawsuit to confirm the non-existence of exclusive contract effect filed by Chuu against former agency Blockberry Creative (hereafter Blockberry), the Seoul Northern District Court’s 12th Civil Suits Division ruled that “The exclusive contract signed in December 2017 between the plaintiff (Chuu) and defendant (Blockberry) is confirmed to be null and void.” That is, the court has sided with Chuu. The court also ordered Blockberry to pay for the costs of the lawsuit.
Earlier in March, the court urged for a mutual settlement between the parties, which fell through. Ultimately, through this verdict, the court determined that the exclusive contract between Chuu and Blockberry did not have any effect, and as Chuu has won in the primary lawsuit in addition to the injunction petition, she has legally become free from any exclusive contract relationship with Blockberry.

While Chuu had won the ability to have an injunction against her contract, and avoided having her entertainment activities blocked, this is the meaningful ruling that cements her contract as null. I’m sure BBC will attempt to appeal the ruling, but it’s hard to see this being overturned given that they haven’t seen a victory against any of the members yet.

While this had always seemed like the obvious conclusion after the initial wins, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any K-pop company get continually dunked on as hard as Blockberry has in contract disputes, but it’s always nice for it to (mostly) be done and dusted.