Andrew Orr
Despite objections, a US judge has upheld the $50 million settlement from a class-action lawsuit against Apple over faulty MacBook butterfly keyboards.
A court granted initial approval in November 2022 to a $50 million settlement that resolves the class-action lawsuit against Apple regarding the butterfly keyboard. The class-action case, which was certified in 2021 and initiated in 2018, pertains to people who own MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro models released in 2015 and 2016.
Now, a report on Friday from Reuters says US District Judge Edward Davila approved the settlement, calling it "fair, adequate and reasonable."
Eleven consumers led the class-action lawsuit from various US states, including New York, Florida, California, and Michigan. They alleged that Apple failed to provide sufficient repairs or troubleshooting help for specific MacBook "butterfly" keyboards manufactured between 2015 and 2019.
Despite encountering obstacles, the settlement faced opposition on specific grounds. For example, one objection highlighted that the compensation of $125 provided to a particular group within the class was deemed inadequate, considering that keyboard repairs often exceed $300 in cost.
Other challengers argued it was unfair to deny compensation to MacBook owners who experienced keyboard failures but did not get them repaired. In response, Davila pointed out that while not everyone who was purportedly injured will receive compensation, the settlement compromise benefits many people.
Judge Davila further emphasized that the potential for a more favorable settlement or the possibility that the benefits provided may not completely compensate the class members did not constitute sufficient grounds for disapproval.
Class members will receive between $50 and $395 as part of the settlement, depending on the number and nature of repairs made to their keyboards — and how many requests the settlement gets. As of early March, more than 86,000 claims for class member payments had been submitted.
The court's decision also granted the plaintiffs' lawyers' request for $15 million in legal fees. In a statement, the two prominent lawyers representing the lead plaintiffs from Girard Sharp and Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith said they "look forward to getting the money out to our clients."
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
16 Comments
$50M / $50 = 1,000,000 Mac users, except the lawyers get $15M right off the top. I don't call the $15M fair, adequate and reasonable. I call it the typical corrupt legal system. With only 86K claims, I see the settlement way over board.
Was this really as big of a deal as everyone seemed to make it out to be? We used a lot of these butterfly keyboard MacBook Pro's at work and I shit you not, we never had any keyboard issues at all with those. Maybe we were just extremely lucky idk. I also supported some in my previous job and never had any issues either but we didn't have as many.
I can’t speak for the plaintiffs in the case, but I’m still using a butterfly keyboard on my 2019 MBP with no issues.
Some stats AppleInsider once ran on this problem showed that indeed some consumers were affected, but IIRC it was not a much larger percentage than the number of repairs needed on the previous-design keyboards — or the current-design keyboards, for that matter.