Korean pop star Rain and his former agency JYP Entertainment were ordered to pay ~USD8.1 million in damages to a Hawaiian event promoter for cancelling a concert in June 2007.
The judgement was made by a federal court on March 19th in Honolulu; both Rain and JYPE have stated their intention to appeal against the decision.
Rain’s Hawaiian concert at Aloha Stadium was cancelled a few days before the scheduled date; he is facing another lawsuit in LA for cancelling a concert just hours before the show (same tour as the Hawaii concert).
Rain’s spokesperson and JYPE’s representative have expressed their surprise with the verdict, saying that they expected themselves to win the case.
Frankly speaking, it would be very naive if they thought they could win… a concert was cancelled, and they don’t have a really good reason not to compensate, or at least share the damages with the concert promoter.
Asian fans might be shocked with the sum though; in Asian cases the compensations would normally for direct financial loses while neglecting other intangible aspects (e.g. punitive, reputation damage)… obviously it doesn’t work that way in the States.
[update] Rain and JYPE reached agreed on a settlement with Click Entertainment; the amount was not disclosed, but it’s expected to be much lower than the initial compensation [via KBS]
