
The lawsuit over settlement money between singer and actor Lee Seung-gi and his former agency Hook Entertainment (Hook) has resumed as the ruling date has been canceled.
According to Star News on the 15th, the 20th Civil Division of the Seoul Central District Court decided to cancel the ruling date for the lawsuit filed by Hook against Lee Seung-gi regarding the confirmation of non-existence of debt and to resume the hearing. The court made the decision to resume the hearing on the 14th and canceled the ruling scheduled for the 17th. Accordingly, both parties will resume the hearing on March 7.
Lee Seung-gi revealed in December 2022 that he had not received any music royalties from Hook for 18 years since his debut. In response, Hook claimed that they would pay 5.4 billion won in unpaid settlement fees and delayed interest and filed a lawsuit for confirmation of non-existence of debt.
Lee Seung-gi's side claims that Hook underpaid him 3 billion won in advertising commissions and other fees. He argued in the first trial that the 10% model fee, which he thought was paid to the advertising agency as an advertising commission, actually went to the current and former directors of Hook.
Lee Seung-gi attended the trial held in May and stated, “Since my debut, CEO Kwon Jin-young of Hook Entertainment has been very uncomfortable discussing money-related topics such as appearance fees or contract payments,” adding, “Whenever I mentioned money issues, he would get very angry and portray me as a bad person who only cares about money,” and he read a petition aloud.
He continued, “I hope that no one else suffers like I did, and I gathered great courage to speak out. I wanted to express how a celebrity with my years of experience could go 20 years without knowing such a basic right,” and stated, “I feel a desperate need to put an end to such absurd situations for the sake of my juniors as a senior.”