A court sided with singer Chuu, legally terminating her exclusive contract with her former agency BlockBerry Creative after a year and eight months of legal battles.

Seoul Northern District Court ruled Thursday that the contract between BlockBerry Creative and Chuu, a 24-year-old singer whose name is Kim Ji-woo, be nulled and the agency to pay for the singer's lawsuit expenses.

The contract was written in December 2017 when Chuu started her activities as part of girl group Loona that year. The girl group officially debuted in 2018 but individual members' projects started the year prior.

The two parties' conflicts began last November when BlockBerry Creative "expelled” Chuu from the girl group in November 2022, accusing her of verbally abusing staff members.

Chuu, backed by fellow members of the girl group and other staff members that worked with her, denied these allegations and filed for an injunction on her exclusive contract with the agency to the court the following month in December.

Chuu signed with her new agency ATRP last April after a court suspended her contract with BlockBerry Creative in March.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]