NewJeans' ADOR contracts lacked standard protections for minors, investigation finds

The contracts NewJeans' members signed with ADOR as trainees, aged between 14 and 17, departed from the South Korean government's standard template and omitted its protections for minors, according to a newly published investigation into how K-pop companies control their artists.

The template guarantees young performers the right to physical and mental health, schooling and sleep, and restricts labels from overworking minors. NewJeans' contracts rejected that language, so the members were not covered by those guarantees.

Terms described as non-negotiable

Emails obtained during the reporting describe the terms as "essentially non-negotiable." In 2022, the mother of one member is said to have asked for several changes before signing. ADOR's vice president replied that if she did not accept the original terms, "It may be best to reconsider the contract itself." The parents went on to sign.

Earnings, likeness and AI

The contracts allowed ADOR to keep selling NewJeans' music after the agreement ended, while reducing the group's share of earnings. Legal experts quoted in the investigation called that clause unusual.

They also gave ADOR the right to use and keep licensing the members' likenesses, names, photographs, handwriting, voices and other elements tied to their identities. The members are paid when their likeness is used, but have no control over where their faces or voices appear. That includes AI-generated voice clones and chatbots.

Beauty expenses charged to trainees

The contracts required the members to bear part of the cost of "beauty expenses" the label incurred on their behalf during the trainee period, covering plastic surgery, skincare and "body shape correction."

Sources close to the group said that before NewJeans debuted, the label had photographers shoot each member from several angles to study how light would fall on them on stage, then suggested procedures to multiple members based on that analysis. HYBE's representatives denied coercing trainees into undergoing procedures. The sources added that in the K-pop industry such suggestions are rarely regarded as coercive.

Standard practice and the question of responsibility

The investigation recorded that most of the restrictive terms are regarded as standard in K-pop. It also raised doubts about whether Min Hee Jin, ADOR's former chief executive, was responsible for them.

Some fans on social media have argued that responsibility sits with HYBE rather than any one executive, pointing to HYBE's own documentation, which says the company handles contract drafting and review for all its labels through an internal Legal Management System. That reading is the fans' own, and the investigation's findings concern the NewJeans contracts specifically.

The findings were published by The New York Times.