FIFTY FIFTY, who have been dubbed the miraculous medium-sized group after entering the Billboard charts, are facing a court hearing with their agency.
On the 5th, the 50th Civil Division of the Seoul Central District Court will hold the first hearing on FIFTY FIFTY’s application for a preliminary injunction to suspend the effectiveness of their exclusive contract against their agency, Attract. They claim that “Attract has not fulfilled its contractual obligations,” citing settlement issues and unilateral enforcement of activities.
Earlier, FiftyFifty’s agency, Atrax, released a recording of a call with Warner Music Korea’s Yoon that revealed the circumstances of the member extortion. In the recording, Yoon asked Attrax CEO Jeon Hong-joon to check something and mentioned Dougiebus CEO Ahn Sung-il.
Attact claimed that it was Dougiebus CEO Ahn Sung-il who made the 20 billion won buyout offer for Fifty Fifty to Warner Music Korea, and emphasized that it was Dougiebus CEO Ahn Sung-il’s arbitrary behavior, saying that there was no approval from the agency Attact in the process.
Ahn was named by the former CEO as an outside force who tried to extort Fifty Fifty. In response to the allegations of attempted member extortion, DougieBus refuted the claims, saying, “We have no knowledge of any intervention.”
A Warner Music Korea executive was quoted as saying to the former CEO, “I told Ahn Ahn-il that we had offered him 20 billion won for a buyout before.” A buyout is a term used in the sports industry, where a management company offers a transfer fee over a certain amount of money, allowing other management companies to negotiate directly with the singer.
As the case became known, there was a lot of sympathy for the representative of Fifty Fifty’s agency and negative public opinion about Fifty Fifty. In particular, Jeon Hong Joon is said to have sold his watch and car to support the release of Fifty Fifty’s album, and netizens have sent reactions such as, “The agency president’s heart must have broken,” “He must have been so sad,” and “What a slap in the face.”
Meanwhile, FiftyFifty was not seen at the ‘K-Con LA 2023’ where they were scheduled to participate.
On August 5, agency Attract announced, “Fifty Fifty was scheduled to participate in ‘K-Con LA 2023,’ which is scheduled to be held on August 19 in Los Angeles, USA, but as known, due to internal circumstances of the agency, they were unable to attend.”