OMEGA X say they’ve won lawsuit against SPIRE Entertainment to suspend their contracts
OMEGA X say they have won their lawsuit against SPIRE Entertainment to suspend their contracts with the agency.
The announcement was made via the K-pop boyband’s Instagram page yesterday (January 11). “Today, we won the lawsuit we filed against our agency to suspend the validity of our exclusive contract,” their post read, as translated by Soompi. “We were able to achieve this thanks to all of you giving us courage and reaching out a hand.”
OMEGA X went on to thank their fans for their support and concluded their announcement with hints at new “music and performances” to come, although it remains unclear whether they will be moving to a new label or if they will be operating independently from here on. SPIRE Entertainment has yet to comment.
Besides terminating the boyband’s contracts, OMEGA X’s legal counsel had previously stated plans to press charges against SPIRE Entertainment’s former CEO Kang Seong-hee for allegedly “threatening, assaulting and exploiting the members”.
In the first court hearing for the lawsuit regarding OMEGA X’s contracts, which was held on December 7, 2022, SPIRE Entertainment contested the group’s application to file the injunction, asking OMEGA X to give it “one more chance”. Despite saying it “[wasn’t] denying” OMEGA X’s claims of verbal abuse, SPIRE’s attorneys told the court that the label “was not aware that Director Kang had cursed at the members”.
Allegations that Kang had abused OMEGA X first surfaced in October 2022 after the group concluded their tour of the US. Then, Korean outlet SBS News published a number of video clips said to depict Kang verbally abusing and manhandling members outside the concert venue and in their hotel lobby in Los Angeles. Shortly after these clips went viral, the band launched a new, independent Instagram account, where they claimed they were subject to “unwarranted treatment” from SPIRE.
In a press conference in November, members of OMEGA X spoke personally about the mistreatment allegedly inflicted on them by SPIRE Entertainment, including allegations that Kang had sexually harassed some of them and threatened them with murder. In December, Kang again denied that she had abused OMEGA X in an interview with the New York Times.
“I took care of all of them like their mother,” she claimed. “In their opinion, our company does not have enough to nurture them.” Kang also accused OMEGA X of “conducting a witch hunt” against herself and the company.
Kang has yet to comment on OMEGA X’s announcement that they have won the lawsuit to suspend their contracts with SPIRE Entertainment.
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Carmen Chin
NME
