Former K-pop girl group LOONA member Chuu responded, through an Instagram story on Thursday, February 2, to reports that BlockBerry Creative submitted a petition to the Korea Entertainment Management Association and Korea Entertainment Producers Association to ban Chuu from entertainment activities in South Korea.

In their petition, BlockBerry Creative reportedly claimed that Chuu violated her exclusive contract with the agency by signing a new contract with company BY4M Studio in 2021. 

BlockBerry Creative also confirmed that they will file the same petition against Heejin, Kim Lip, JinSoul, and Choerry. The four LOONA members have recently won an injunction to suspend their exclusive contracts with the agency.

“It is quite exhausting and disappointing that I have to keep issuing statements on matters like this,” Chuu wrote in Korean.

“I think that slanderous articles based on false information have crossed the line recently. In December 2021, I did not even know much about a company called BY4M,” she added.

“I cannot stand the fact that they are trying to bind not only me but also the members with lies. I will be organizing my statement soon and will respond.”

The ongoing conflict follows Chuu being kicked out of LOONA in November 2022. Around a year earlier, she had also filed an injunction to suspend her exclusive contract with BlockBerry Creative, on the grounds of payment terms that fans said leave members “in perpetual debt.”

Not long after Chuu was expelled from the group, nine out of the remaining 11 members filed injunctions to also suspend their exclusive contracts, citing breach of mutual trust.

Fans have been boycotting LOONA’s activities since December to protest BlockBerry Creative’s apparent mistreatment of the group. 

LOONA Union, a coalition of LOONA’s fanbases, are collecting petitions from fans until February 9 to bolster the lawsuits of the other five who filed injunctions against BlockBerry Creative: Haseul, Yeojin, Yves, Go Won, and Olivia Hye. At least 1,000 petitions have been collected, according to the fanbases.

— Rappler.com