Actress Goo Hye Sun failed to claim damage and receive compensation from her former agency HB Entertainment.
On June 18th, senior Judge Park Chan Seok of the Seoul Central District Court’s Civil Conciliation Division 63 ruled against Goo Hye Sun in the compensation suit she filed against her former agency HB Entertainment and ordered the actress to pay 170 million won.
The dispute between the two sides began in 2019 when Goo Hye Sun divorced Ahn Jae Hyun. At that time, Goo Hye Sun and Ahn Jae Hyun were under the same agency. Goo Hye Sun expressed dissatisfaction, claiming that the agency handled their work only from Ahn Jae Hyun’s perspective during and after their divorce process.
In August 2019, Goo Hye Sun eventually notified the agency of the termination of her exclusive contract. The dispute between the two sides was resolved through mediation by the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board.
The mediation condition stated that Goo Hye Sun must pay HB Entertainment 35 million won for various expenses for the building of her Youtube channel content instead of terminating their exclusive contract signed in June 2019. Around November 2018, Goo Hye Sun appeared on HB Entertainment’s Youtube channel and made an oral agreement to receive 50% of the net profit generated from the videos. The actress showed up on the channel from January to May 2019.
At that time, Goo Hye Sun paid 35 million won to HB Entertainment. However, she filed a lawsuit claiming that her former agency had benefited from her properties without a legally valid reason. According to Goo Hye Sun, she had agreed to contribute her “appearance” while HB Entertainment agreed to provide the “financial” matters, such as production costs. Through the mediation process, she argued that the original agreement should be restored, including returning the money for her appearances.
Gu Hye Sun demanded payment of 60 million won in total for 12 appearances, editing fees of 10 million won, 3 million won for the use of music, advertising fees of 30 million won, and YouTube profits of around 4 million won.
However, the court dismissed Goo Hye Sun’s claims, stating “There was insufficient evidence to acknowledge that the effects of the agreement have retroactively expired”. The court also turned down Goo Hye Sun’s request that videos should not be reproduced or distributed, stating that the actress did not possess copyright neighboring rights.
