Seven Eleven Takes Legal Action Against Drama D.P.... "Defamation of Franchise Owners"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Convenience store chain Seven Eleven is considering legal action against the drama production company and Netflix, claiming that the drama 'D.P.' portrayed its franchise owners as malicious store owners.

Korea Seven, which operates Seven Eleven, announced on the 7th that earlier this month it sent a certified letter to Climax Studio, the production company of 'D.P.', and Netflix, demanding measures regarding the negative content in the drama. This was because the drama aired content that portrayed Seven Eleven negatively, contrary to prior agreements, damaging the reputation of both the headquarters and the franchise owners operating the convenience stores.

The problematic scene is a 47-second conversation between a convenience store owner and a part-time worker (Hwang Jang-su in the drama) in episode 5. The owner hits the worker on the chest saying, "If you throw away expired products immediately, you’ll have to cover the losses, okay?" and orders, "Restock it." Both characters are wearing vests clearly displaying the Seven Eleven logo.

Seven Eleven stated that this content was not agreed upon beforehand and significantly distorted the image of the franchise owners and the brand. Accordingly, they requested corrections from the production company and sent a certified letter containing related content to Netflix. They are also considering filing a provisional injunction with the court to ban the broadcast.

A Seven Eleven representative said, "There is a risk that viewers might misunderstand this as a common practice in convenience stores, even though such things never happened and should never happen," adding, "We recognized the issue immediately after the drama aired, protested to the production company, and requested corrections, but have yet to receive a response."

The representative also said, "Initially, when the production company requested filming cooperation, they said they would film a scene of a part-time worker stocking products and clearly stated in official documents that no negative content would be included," adding, "We are exploring various solutions, including legal measures."

The drama D.P., which has been airing on Netflix since last month, has received great attention for realistically depicting the story of the military deserter pursuit unit (D.P.). Regarding the depiction of harsh treatment within the military, the Ministry of National Defense officially stated that the military environment has changed.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.