Demanded "100 Million Dollars" from Former Agency... Gu Hye-sun Filed a Lawsuit but Lost
Claim of Verbal Agreement on YouTube Revenue Sharing in Exclusive Contract
Dispute Over Contract Termination After Divorce
Actress Gu Hye-sun (39) filed a lawsuit against her former agency seeking recognition of her share in the production of YouTube broadcasts she appeared in and the video copyrights, but she lost the case.
According to the legal community on the 18th, the Seoul Central District Court Civil Division 63 (Chief Judge Park Chan-seok) ruled against Gu Hye-sun in a damages lawsuit demanding HB Entertainment, her former agency, to pay over 107 million won.
The dispute between the two parties began when Gu Hye-sun went through divorce proceedings with her ex-husband Ahn Jae-hyun (36) in 2019. At that time, both Gu Hye-sun and Ahn Jae-hyun were under contract with HB Entertainment.
Gu Hye-sun reportedly made a verbal agreement with HB Entertainment in November 2018 to appear on a YouTube channel and produce videos. She claimed that they verbally agreed to split the profits evenly.
Between January and May 2019, while appearing on the channel, she was notified by the agency of the termination of her exclusive contract due to the divorce. Although she expressed her intention to maintain the contract, the company did not change its stance on contract termination.
Both parties applied for arbitration at the Korea Commercial Arbitration Board to verify the validity of the contract termination and the legality of profit settlement. The arbitration ruled that "the contract termination is valid, and Gu must compensate HB Entertainment 35 million won for damages related to YouTube." Gu Hye-sun paid this amount to HB Entertainment but then filed a lawsuit claiming that the former agency gained financial benefits without legal grounds.
Gu Hye-sun's position is that she agreed to contribute labor while HB Entertainment would provide production costs, but through the arbitration process, their agreement was retroactively nullified. She also argued that since she compensated for YouTube production costs due to the arbitration ruling and actually appeared in the videos, the copyrights belong to her.
Gu Hye-sun filed a damages lawsuit demanding over 100 million won, including 60 million won for 12 YouTube appearances, 10 million won for editing services, 3 million won for the use of her music, 30 million won in advertising revenue, and about 4 million won in YouTube income.
HB Entertainment responded that the YouTube channel is the company's own business, not a joint venture with Gu Hye-sun, and that no related contract was signed.
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The court stated, "The YouTube channel was opened under the name of the defendant HB Entertainment, and since the profit-sharing was limited to the works in which she appeared, it does not imply a joint business," and dismissed the claim, saying, "There is insufficient evidence to recognize that the agreement was retroactively nullified." The court also dismissed Gu Hye-sun's request to prohibit reproduction and distribution of the videos, stating, "The plaintiff cannot be considered to hold neighboring rights."
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