Former G-Friend member who left the group right before debut sentenced to pay over 10 million KRW to Source Music

AKP STAFF

Source Music has won their lawsuit against a former G-Friend member who left the group right before the group's debut.

Source Music had filed a lawsuit against trainee 'A'. She had signed a short-term training contract with Source Music in October 2013 and had received vocal and dance training. However, in April 2014, she told the label that she wanted to rest and wanted to stop, and stopped coming to training. Source Music claimed that 'A' had agreed to submit the documents for contract cancellation as well as pay the fees. The contract that she signed stated that if she had broken the contract, she had to pay twice the amount that Source Music invested in her. However, 'A' took no action to pay the amount, and Source Music filed the suit in August 2014.

During the suit, Source Music demanded a total of 55.7 million KRW (~49k USD), with 12.47 million KRW (~11k USD) as double the amount invested, and 43.22 million KRW (~38k USD) that included the additional girl group training and dorming fees from the team debut being pushed back 5 months. 'A' tried to protest that Source Music imposed impossible weight loss on her and excluded her from training saying her looks were problematic, but the court did not accept her defense, reasoning that 'A' did not come to training and therefore broke the contract, meaning she had to pay the double amount.

However, the court did not accept that it was 'A's fault that G-Friend's debut was pushed back 5 months, reasoning, "G-Friend was originally planned to be a 7 member group, but another trainee other than 'A' left, making the group 5 members until another member was added for it to be 6. From this, it can't be said that it was only 'A's fault that the debut was delayed."

The court ordered 'A' to pay the original contract breaking fee of 12.47 million KRW.

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