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[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] For the time being, actor Gong Yoo's 'Terra, Clean Lager' advertisement will continue to be seen. The court accepted HiteJinro's request for a provisional injunction to suspend the enforcement of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's corrective order prohibiting the use of the term 'Clean Lager.' Accordingly, until the administrative lawsuit results are announced, the Clean Lager marketing will proceed without issue.

The 13th Division of the Seoul Administrative Court announced on the 25th that it had approved HiteJinro's provisional injunction request to suspend the enforcement of the corrective order issued by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, which prohibited the use of the term 'Clean Lager.'

The court explained, "We accepted the request because we judged that there is an urgent need to suspend the enforcement to prevent irreparable damage to the applicant."

Accordingly, HiteJinro can continue marketing Terra advertisements expressing 'Clean Lager' for the time being. However, the suspension of enforcement will last until 30 days after the judgment date of the lawsuit requesting cancellation of the corrective order. Therefore, if HiteJinro loses the administrative lawsuit, the use will only be allowed for one month thereafter. If they win, the Clean Lager marketing will proceed without any problems. Regarding this, HiteJinro stated, "We have undergone legal review and believe there is no issue with using the term 'Clean Lager,'" expressing positive expectations.

Earlier, on the 12th, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety judged that the use of the term 'Clean Lager' in Terra beer advertisements sold by HiteJinro violated the Food Labeling and Advertising Act and issued a corrective order. The ministry judged that highlighting Australian malt, commonly used across the domestic beer industry, as a special feature only for Terra as a 'differentiated clean lager' could mislead consumers. Additionally, even if differentiated malt was used, exaggerating the term 'Clean Lager' based solely on a raw material that is only part of the beer ingredients was also seen as problematic.

Subsequently, HiteJinro immediately filed for a provisional injunction to suspend enforcement and initiated an administrative lawsuit. Since the launch of Terra in March last year, HiteJinro has advertised it as a 'Clean Lager' using Australian clean malt through product labels and TV commercials. The Terra craze in the beer market continues. Sales in January surpassed 500 million bottles. Compared to selling 200 million bottles within five months after its launch in March 2019, the sales speed has increased about threefold. This equates to 11 bottles per adult (based on 42.31 million adults).