A girl group trainee has been forced to pay hefty fine for leaving just ahead of the group’s debut.
As of May 18th, Seoul Central District ruled that trainee Kim is to first compensate 12,470,000 won out of 55,700,0000 won for leaving early.
The agency stated, “The trainee’s one-sided cancellation of the contract has caused a loss for our agency.” Reportedly, trainee Kim has signed a short training contract on October of 2013 in order to join the agency’s rookie girl group that was planned to debut last July. However, trainee Kim left during practice and never returned last April. Following another trainee leaving, the agency delayed the girl group’s debut for another five months.
According to the court, “(Due to Kim’s violation of the contract) under the condition of termination, the trainee is to compensate twice the amount that has been invested. The compensation amount is not excessively heavy as well.”
The court has denied trainee Kim’s statement, “Agency ‘A’ required unrealistic weight loss and excluded me from practice due to my physical appearance” as an excuse for early termination of the contract. However, the court has also rejected the agency’s claim that Trainee A is responsible to compensate for the five month delay of the girl group’s debut as the reason behind the delay seems to be because of the other trainee’s leaving and not because of trainee Kim.
Source: news1
