Min Hee-jin, CEO of ADOR, has raised allegations against HYBE regarding album dumping.
She claims that HYBE's unethical practices are negatively affecting the entertainment industry's growth.
HYBE denies these allegations, stating that they are baseless.
They argue that they conducted a thorough investigation of their artists' album sales last year, and returns were only 0.32%.
On the 17th, Min Hee-jin stated,
"Album dumping is already rampant within HYBE's labels. We demand a thorough investigation into whether there were transactions with subsidiaries under return conditions."
She also claimed that NewJeans' 'Get Up' album received a similar proposal.
"We were offered 100,000 copies from HYBE,"
she said, "but we firmly refused as it goes against ADOR's business principles."
Album dumping refers to artificially inflating first-week sales by placing large orders through distributors or overseas subsidiaries and covering the excess with fan events. Unsold albums are often returned.
Min Hee-jin criticized the practice, stating, "It sends false information about the artist's performance and disrupts fair market order."
According to Min, NewJeans was urged to engage in album dumping during the release of their second mini-album 'Get Up.'
"HYBE suggested it could break aespa's first-week sales record," she explained.
However, she said they refused the offer.
"The pure records NewJeans has achieved so far could be tarnished," she emphasized, "This shows HYBE's severe lack of ethical awareness."
HYBE strongly denied these accusations, calling them baseless.
"HYBE does not engage in album dumping," they stated, "This has been explained to ADOR multiple times."
They revealed the results of a comprehensive investigation.
Last year, HYBE artists released 17 albums, selling a total of 43.6 million copies (including about 10 million old albums).
Only 0.32% of these were returned.
They clarified that even the 140,000 returned copies were not intentional.
"An employee permitted returns without a contract clause," they said.
HYBE also mentioned NewJeans' 'Get Up' album.
"We were optimistic about the market and planned to produce 3.5 million copies. However, we currently have 1.61 million copies in stock," they said.
They explained that they sold additional copies through Japanese distributor UMJ and held fan events, with ADOR participating in these discussions.
HYBE revealed that UMJ was initially reluctant to purchase over 90,000 copies.
"ADOR participated in the negotiation and sold 60,000 additional copies, which could be considered a bulk order by ADOR," they said.
They pointed out that the remaining stock led to a fan signing event with all NewJeans members on August 20, 2023, to clear the inventory.
HYBE criticized Min Hee-jin, stating, "This is part of sales promotion activities. Claiming it's justifiable for NewJeans but calling it dumping for other artists lacks credibility."
