Interpark sues Lee Hyori for 500 million Won

Singer Lee Hyori is under fire again, but this time she gets hit with a lawsuit by online shopping mall, Interpark, for damaging their image caused by her music plagiarism.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Newspaper, Interpark, a company Hyori once modeled for, filed in a lawsuit through her entertainment company, Mnet Media, demanding 490 million Won ($422,000 USD) worth of damage compensation.

Interpark stated, “Lee Hyori admitted to the media and her fan cafe that her 4th album did contain plagiarism, and stated she will cease her activities as a singer, which resulted in her to stop modeling for us as well. The broken image of Lee Hyori’s bright and healthy image has caused our company a huge financial loss to a degree that one cannot imagine.”

They continued, “The image of an advertising model has a direct connection with not only the brand’s image, but also the corporate image. It is not right to damage the company’s image, product sales, credibility, and reputation in the middle of a contract.

“Because of Lee Hyori’s breach of contract, we were forced to suspend the filming of her advertisement and stop using her as our model all together. The total cost of damages came to exactly 492,880,000 Won ($424,862.56 USD). Our claim is requesting for this specific amount for damage compensation.”

Back on August 18th, 2009,  Lee Hyori contracted with Interpark as their model, and received a total of 715 million won ($616,000 USD) in return. However, she suddenly decided to cut her contract short on August 20th after admitting to the plagiarism that was contained in her 4th album, ‘H. Logic’.