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| MacBook owners are suing Apple over the keyboard |
The judge approved a class-action lawsuit against the fragile design of the Apple Butterfly keyboard.
The lawsuit concerns anyone who purchases a MacBook with a butterfly keyboard in seven states (California, New York, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Washington, and Michigan).
This includes people who bought MacBook models between 2015 and 2017, MacBook Pro models between 2016 and 2019, or MacBook Air between 2018 and 2019.
Judge (Edward Davila) approved the case in seven subcategories in California on March 8, but the case remained closed until the end of last week.
The arrangement adds to the cost of the lawsuit, which was first filed in 2018, three years after Apple added the controversial Butterfly Keyboard to its laptops.
The butterfly keyboard is thinner than Apple's previous design that used industry-standard scissor keys.
However, many dissatisfied MacBook users find that Apple's revamped keyboard performs poorly when little dust collects around the keys.
This can result in contact touches, the inability to record keystrokes, or multiple keystrokes.
Apple has modified the Butterfly keyboard several times, but dropped it in 2020 after persistent complaints.
The lawsuit alleges that Apple knew that the design was flawed for many years and that the ever-increasing amount of changes had failed to solve the underlying problem.
The lawsuit cited internal communications within Apple, including executives who wrote that no matter how many tweaks it chooses, it's still bad.
Prosecutors charged Apple with violating numerous laws in the seven states listed, including the California Unfair Competition Act, the Florida Fraudulent and Unfair Business Conduct Act, and the Florida and Michigan Consumer Protection Act.
The plaintiffs are not currently claiming nationwide certification, but the law firm behind the lawsuit has asked all affected US MacBook buyers to complete the investigation.
Apple rejected the affidavit from the class-action lawsuit, saying the standard lawsuit was not intended to cover multiple changes to the butterfly keyboard, but the plaintiff successfully argued that all Butterfly keyboards could encounter due to the narrow gap between their design and the switches. Problem.
Apple later had to argue that these basic features didn't make the design unreliable and it didn't take many years to intentionally create a defective keyboard.