A Korean cosmetics Company filed a lawsuit against its model, Ivy, a K-pop female singer, alleging her lies and scandal-plagued private life has damaged its brand images.

The cosmetics company had hired Ivy as its advertisement model last April, but after then, Ivy got a scandal with her ex-boyfriend who allegedly had attempted to blackmail her with a revealing video clip showing him with the K-pop star. Ivy has stopped her career until now and the cosmetics company claims it constitutes a breach of contract under which Ivy is required not to harm the image of the company or its brand with any scandalous or improper behavior. You can read the news article here.

There was a similar case between a top T.V star Choi, Jin-Sil, and its advertiser. The company claimed that her violence and divorce scandal with her husband had damaged the company’s brand image thus it had constituted a breach of contract. The lower court denied the company’s claim, but the Supreme Court overturned it which established the enforceability of morals clause. 

© 2008 Wonil Chung, a Korean Entertainment Music Lawyer/Chung & Partners, a Korean Entertainment Law Firm.  All rights reserved. Some copyrights, photos, icons, trademarks, trade dress, or other commercial symbols that appear on this post are the property of the respective owner.