A U.S. federal judge on Monday rejected Apple Inc’s bid to dismiss a proposed class action lawsuit by customers who said it knew and concealed how the “butterfly” keyboards on its MacBook laptop computers were prone to failure.
U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California said Apple must face claims that its troubleshooting program did not provide an “effective fix” for MacBook design defects, or fully compensate customers for their out-of-pocket expenses while seeking repairs.
Customers claimed that their MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptop keyboards suffered from sticky keys, unresponsive keys and keystrokes that failed to register when tiny amounts of dust or debris accumulated under or near keys.
They also said Apple’s service program was inadequate because the Cupertino, California-based company often provided replacement keyboards that had the same problems.
The lawsuit covers purchasers of model year 2015 or later MacBook laptops, and model year 2016 or later MacBook Pros laptops. It seeks a variety of damages for violations of several states’ consumer protection laws.
MacDailyNews Take: This is precisely the sort of thing that should be litigated. Hopefully, Apple has learned/will learn many lessons from this butterfly keyboard fiasco.
Form over function will get you every time.
Hey, Jony: Enough with the thin.
Everything is thin enough. Sometimes too thin. (See above.) Thinner isn’t the answer to everything, nor is thinness intrinsic to good design. We’d gladly take a bit more robustness and battery life over more unnecessary thinness, thanks. – MacDailyNews, June 25, 2018
Eligible models for Apple’s Keyboard Service Program for MacBook and MacBook Pro:
• MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015)
• MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2016)
• MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, 2017)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017)