South Korean actor Kim Soo-hyun has been sued for over US$2million by two companies he previously served as an advertisement model for, following his recent controversies.
Korean news outlet YTN reported that two unidentified companies sought compensation for damages and reimbursement for their payment to the actor for their advertisement contracts. His advertisement contracts were prematurely terminated after the family of late actress Kim Sae-ron publicly accused Kim Soo-hyun of being romantically involved with her, starting from when she was 15 years old and he was 27 years old.
According to YTN, the total value of the lawsuits filed by both companies have amounted to about ₩30billion, approximately US$2million. The outlet also added that there will likely be more companies filing lawsuits against Kim Soo-hyun. “Kim Soo-hyun has signed advertisement model contracts with 15 brands, each valued between ₩1billion (about US$696,000) and ₩1.2billion (about US$835,000),” it wrote, per translations by Koreaboo.
“Usually, companies are reluctant to make it known that they were the first ones to file a lawsuit [against their model]. But once one company files a lawsuit, more can be expected to join later on,” a lawyer told the outlet.
Aside from dating rumours, Kim Soo-hyun had also been accused of ignoring Kim Sae-ron’s attempts to contact him last year after she was served a notice by his agency, Gold Medalist, which she was also signed to until late 2022. The notice demanded she pay the company ₩700million for damages in relation to her DUI incident in 2022.
The actress passed in early February at the age 24, with authorities treating her death as a suicide.