Pay up, Apple! MacBook owners may get paid for butterfly keyboard debacle

Pay up, Apple tree! MacBook owners may get paid for butterfly keyboard debacle

(Image credit: Laptop Mag)

Cha-ching! MacBook Air and MacBook Pro owners may receive financial bounty as a result of Apple'south butterfly-keyboard debacle. A U.Southward. District Judge certified a class-action lawsuit seeking to penalize the Cupertino-based tech giant for implementing failure-prone keyboards on its MacBooks in contempo years.

The growing form-action lawsuit is led by 11 Apple customers across vii states: California, Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, Florida, Washington, New Jersey and Michigan. The group of plaintiffs is hoping to inflict "economic injury" upon Apple.

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Apple may face legal consequences for butterfly-keyboard disaster

For those unfamiliar with Apple tree's butterfly-keyboard disaster, in 2022, the Cupertino-based tech giant introduced the new "butterfly keyboard" on the 12-inch MacBook (yep, merely "MacBook" with no "Air" or "Pro" modifier). It's a moment in Apple history that I'm certain the MacBook maker wishes it could scrub.

16-inch Apple MacBook Pro (2019) (Image credit: Laptop Magazine)

Since Apple tree kicked off the butterfly-keyboard era, reports about the keyboard being a lacking, failure-prone hunk of junk started flooding in. Despite this, Apple tree kept defending its butterfly keyboards for several years until it finally tucked its tail between its legs and admitted defeat. Apple began phasing out the flawed keyboard in 2022 with the 16-inch MacBook Pro.

As such, a grouping of plaintiffs slapped Apple tree with a lawsuit on behalf of "all persons who purchased, other than for resale, inside California, New York, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Washington, or Michigan, an Apple MacBook from any of the model years 2022-2017."

Other laptops that are in the hot seat include MacBook Pro models between 2022 and 2022 (except the xvi-inch MacBook Pro that was released in November 2022) and MacBook Air models between 2022 and 2022. It's also worth noting that Apple has acknowledged its butterfly-keyboard issues and launched a Keyboard Service Program to replace keyboards from eligible laptops free of charge.

Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch — 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro (2019) (Image credit: Laptop Mag)

Despite Apple'southward objections and protests, U.S. District Approximate Edward J. Davila for the Northern District of California certified the form-action adapt. If you don't live in any of the vii states listed in the suit, don't worry. Girard Sharp, the firm behind the lawsuit, plans to expand its grade action to more consumers across all fifty states by conducting an online survey, which you tin complete hither.

The butterfly-keyboard debacle isn't the only course-activity thorn in Apple's side. You may call back that the Cupertino-based tech behemothic also had to pay out $500 million to customers ($25 per device) after throttling iPhone batteries, impelling customers to upgrade their devices.

If the plaintiffs are successful with this butterfly-keyboard lawsuit, affected MacBook customers will probable receive direct payments and/or refunds for keyboard repairs.

Kimberly Gedeon, belongings a Master's caste in International Journalism, launched her career as a journalist for MadameNoire'southward business organization vanquish in 2022. She loved translating stuffy stories about the economy, personal finance and investing into digestible, easy-to-understand, entertaining stories for young women of color. During her time on the business crush, she discovered her passion for tech equally she dove into manufactures about tech entrepreneurship, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the latest tablets. After eight years of freelancing, dabbling in a myriad of beats, she's finally plant a home at Laptop Mag that accepts her as the crypto-addicted, virtual reality-loving, investing-focused, tech-fascinated nerd she is. Woot!