An appeal that was recently filed by the agency of girl group LOONA regarding a lawsuit that requires the company to repay 3.5 billion won of investment funding has been rejected. LOONA’s label must return the funding in full to the investors.
On September 14th, the Seoul High Court upheld its initial ruling in an appellate suit against an investment repayment lawsuit, which was filed by Polaris and its subsidiary Blockberry Creative, the agency of LOONA.
According to the Court, “LOONA’s company was absent for more than two hearing dates of the appellate suit; thus, we decided to withdraw the appeal.” As a result, Polaris and Blockberry Creative have been ordered to repay 3.5 billion won in full to DONUTS, the investor. This ruling has shined a “red light” on not only the company’s operations and management but also LOONA’s future activities.
DONUTS, the second-largest shareholder of Blockberry Creative, previously filed a lawsuit against Blockberry’s parent company Polaris. The Japanese tech company claimed that, after it invested 3.5 billion won, Polaris did not fulfill their contract. When the court ruled that “LOONA’s company must return the invested amount in full”, the agency filed an appeal. In February, the case was sent to the High Court. However, as both parties did not attend the hearing, the appeal was rejected.
Last year, Polaris was involved in another legal dispute DONUTS. Polaris collaborated with DONUTS in 2017 in order to help grow and foster the LOONA project. The company received 400 million won to be used as a deposit towards a space lease. Although Polaris was able to pay 40 million won, the company was ultimately sued for failing to repay the remaining 360 million won. At the time, the Court sided with DONUTS. DONUTS is reportedly planning to assert their rights on the group LOONA, according to the investment agreement, and will prevent the group from having its agency affiliation changed or transferred.
LOONA debuted in August 2018 as a twelve-member group. The group caught the attention of the public after Lee Soo Man of SM Entertainment headed the production of their latest album ‘#.’ LOONA is currently preparing to release new music before the end of the year.
Following this news, Blockberry Creative shared that they will fully support LOONA’s activities regardless of the results of this situation: “Blockberry Creative is currently doing its best for LOONA’s comeback preparations and promotions, and things are proceeding smoothly.”
