The company scored 2.25 out of a possible 12.
Koreaboo
7 minutes ago
HYBE ranked 48th out of 50 major South Korean companies in a human rights due diligence assessment published on 21 April. Out of a possible 12 points, the company scored just 2.25.
| News1
The assessment was conducted by the Korean Bar Association and NGO Human Asia using the CHRB framework, which is based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. It evaluated 50 of South Korea’s top companies across four areas: policy commitments, management systems, due diligence processes, and grievance mechanisms.
Hyundai Engineering & Construction came first with a perfect score. LG Electronics, Naver, Samsung Electronics, and Kakao rounded out the top five. At the other end, Coupang finished last with 1.25 points. HYBE sat just above them.
So where did HYBE fall short? Pretty much everywhere.
| Billboard
The company has a human rights policy on paper, but the details are thin. HYBE scored 1.5 out of 3 for policy commitments — there’s no statement committing to human rights remedies, no requirement for partners to meet the same standards, and no disclosure of cooperation with legal or non-legal remedy procedures. In the due diligence category, it scored zero out of five. No systematic risk tracking, no reporting on actions taken, nothing.
The attorney who led the assessment was clear that the exercise wasn’t about shaming anyone. “This was not carried out to criticize companies that received low scores,” he said, calling it an analysis based purely on publicly available information.
Separately, police applied for an arrest warrant for HYBE Chairman Bang Si Hyuk on the same day for alleged violations of capital markets regulations. The warrant was returned by prosecutors on 24 April, with a request for further investigation. Police confirmed on 27 April that supplementary investigation is ongoing.