L'Occitane employee who leaked revealing photos of SEVENTEEN's MIN-GYU is finally being investigated after filing a police report

South Korean police have launched an investigation against an employee of a cosmetics brand who posted a photo of Min Kyu of the group SEVENTEEN with his jacket off on SNS.

　According to the police and other authorities, on the 10th September, the Gangnam Police Station in Seoul launched an investigation into A, an employee of the cosmetics brand L'Occitane, who was accused by the police of violating the Special Law on Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes (filming using cameras, etc.).

　The police stated in their response to the public hearing that ‘the case has been received by the Investigation 1 and Investigation 2 teams and the direction of action will be set after further review’ and that ‘the progress of the operation will be notified by mail, telephone and SMS in due course’.

　Prior to this, A posted on their SNS a photo of Min Kyu of SEVENTEEN taken at the time of the advertisement shoot. These included a photo of him without his jacket, to which A responded, "Min Kyu occupied a considerable part of the album. I was too anxious to erase them, but I have already added the words ‘I'll try to sort it out now’." Subsequently, such behaviour of A spread to the issue of illegal photography and invasion of privacy.

　The ‘L'Occitane Korea’ side stated that it had immediately removed A from all duties and issued a standby order against them for publishing photos with parts of his body exposed without permission. L'Occitane Korea apologised to the artists and fans who were hurt by the incident, saying "We take this matter very seriously and sincerely apologise to all of them. We will introduce regular education and programmes for all employees on the importance of copyright, portrait rights, publicity rights and the right to privacy of brand ambassador artists to ensure that all employees thoroughly understand and comply with these rights."

　A netizen subsequently filed a complaint against employee A with the police, stating that they were "deemed to have been aware that this photo could induce sexual desire or shame," adding that they "strongly urges the police to immediately launch an investigation and punish the employee in question severely."

　In response, the police launched an investigation after receiving the case, and the outcome of the investigation will be closely watched.