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On September 23, 2023, the fan union of the girl group FIFTY FIFTY announced a boycott of all purchased goods, music, social media accounts, and merchandise produced by ATTRAKT Entertainment in retaliation for the company's abuse of the group. The boycott guidelines also include the prohibition on purchasing physical and digital albums and singles, as well as other goods and paid event tickets.
The fan union also urged the fandom to refrain from streaming ATTRAKT content, including, but not limited to, music and lyric videos, which is another aspect of the protest. The fan union has further advised internet users to unfollow all the official social media profiles of the girl group that are managed by ATTRAKT. This entire rebellion sparked off from the ongoing legal actions against Ahn Sung-il.
On September 25, South Korea’s court granted ATTRAKT’s copyright allegations against Ahn Sung Il, the CEO of The Givers. The talent agency ATTRAKT has filed a lawsuit against the accused, stating that Ahn Sung-il breached the trust and pleaded for compensation of the money by freezing his revenue accounts, which he had siphoned off from the talent agency.
“It’s going down”: Fans of FIFTY FIFTY boycott ATTRAKT for mistreating the group as revealed by the idols, who sued the company
During the court case, the verdict of the court has displeased the fans of the girl group of Cupid fame, and they have united to boycott ATTRAKT—the talent agency under which the group debuted—and have already embarked on mass unfollowing the agency’s account. Fans have taken social media by storm to fight against the agency and demand justice for the girl group, FIFTY FIFTY.
Ahn Sung-il tried to poach FIFTY FIFTY, alongside embezzling money from ATTRAKT
The Copyright Association has placed a hold on the current payments of copyright fees for FIFTY FIFTY's debut album THE FIFTY and The Beginning: Cupid, both of which are registered to Ahn Sung-il. ATTRAKT asserted that Ahn Sung-il was embezzling money from the Korean talent agency under the cover of providing services for the new girl group, due to which the agency filed the lawsuit against him.
“We found out that Ahn Sung-il of The Givers has been misappropriating the company's funds while rendering services for ATTRAKT. In response, we applied for provisional attachment of copyright fees as compensation for the embezzled funds, requests that the court has since granted.”
Given new charges of theft and breach of trust against Ahn Sung-il of The Givers, ATTRAKT has stated its intention to submit a request for provisional attachment on the remaining amount to the court.
Following this, the CEO of ATTRAKT, Jun Hong-joon, filed a police report in June 2023, accusing three people, including the CEO of The Givers—Ahn Sung-il—of fraud, breach of trust, and other offenses. According to Jun Hong-joon, Ahn Sung-il and his cohorts attempted to poach the FIFTY FIFTY members via Warner Music Korea, the group’s international distributor.
He also said that The Givers concealed this knowledge from ATTRAKT by covertly purchasing the Cupid music source copyright from an overseas composer. The Givers responded to these allegations by denying all wrongdoing and warning them to take legal action.
Meanwhile, in June 2023, the FIFTY FIFTY members also filed a preliminary injunction, expressing their desire to end their exclusive agreement with ATTRAKT. They cited failures to meet their obligations to provide adequate settlement data, anomalies in member health management, and a dearth of adequate human and material resources as justifications.
However, the court found that FIFTY FIFTY had failed to give adequate justification for terminating their contract and instructed the members to continue their employment with ATTRAKT. Furthermore, the girl group decided to appeal this verdict right away and declare their intention to carry on the legal conflict by filing a lawsuit on the merits as a result.
The revelation by FIFTY FIFTY regarding the mistreatment towards them by their own talent agency ATTRAKT has stirred a tornado of backlash from its fandom. Only time will reveal more about the trajectory of this entire situation.
