South Korea's pop diva Lee Hyori and her agency have been ordered to pay nearly 200 million won ($176,700) in compensation to an Internet shopping mall after the firm's commercials featuring the star became unusable, a Seoul court said Tuesday.
The Seoul Central District Court said it delivered the ruling in a recent court-led arbitration for a damages suit filed by the Internet shopping site. The 32-year-old singer and her agency were made to jointly pay 190 million in compensation, it said.
The online shopping mall argued their television and other commercials featuring Lee became unusable last year due to her tarnished image from plagiarism controversies. The company demanded that she and her agency pay 4.9 million won in restitution.
The firm signed the commercial contract with the singer in 2008, paying her 700 million won, but the plagiarism issue brought their deal to a halt last year.
Lee's songwriter was convicted last year of selling her six plagiarized songs for her fourth solo album.
Lee debuted as a member of the successful pop girl group Fin.K.L in 1998, but later become a solo act after the girl group broke up. (Yonhap News)
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법원, 이효리 등에 억대 배상 조정
서울중앙지법 민사합의45부(고충정 부장판사)는 한 인터넷 쇼핑업체가 가수 이효리와 소속사를 상대로 낸 손해배상 청구소송에서 이효리와 소속사가 1억9천만원을 배상하도록 조정이 성립했다고 6일 밝혔다.
이 업체는 지난 2009년 8월 이효리와 광고모델 계약을 맺고 7억여원을 지급했지 만, 지난해 이효리의 4집 앨범 표절 논란이 빚어져 이미 제작된 광고를 중단해야 했 다고 주장해왔다.
이에 업체는 이효리의 이미지가 훼손돼 광고를 활용하지 못했다며 제작비 등 총 4억9천여만원을 배상하라는 소송을 냈다.