Apple's $50M keyboard settlement deemed 'fair & reasonable'

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."

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16 Comments

rob53 3312 comments · 13 Years

About 1 year ago

$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.

macxpress 5913 comments · 16 Years

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.

DGDMN 10 comments · 2 Years

macxpress said:

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.

Blown out of proportion. My daughters haven't had a single issue with their Butterfly action keyboards either. Going on 5 years of usage.

chasm 3621 comments · 10 Years

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.

davidw 2119 comments · 17 Years

DGDMN said:

macxpress said:

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.

Blown out of proportion. My daughters haven't had a single issue with their Butterfly action keyboards either. Going on 5 years of usage.

But notice what the lawyers sued Apple for ...... They alleged that Apple failed to provide sufficient repairs or troubleshooting help for specific MacBook "butterfly" keyboards manufactured between 2015 and 2019. It appears that the class action complaint wasn't about any known design flaw or a high failure rate of Apple's butterfly keyboards but just that Apple failed to provide repair support if or when they fail. And this .... failure to provide sufficient support .... would had to have been after any warranty period, as Apple would had repaired/replace any keyboards that were still under warranty.

Now if Apple weren't repairing or offering support for failing the keyboards, while it was still under warranty, that's a different matter. But the fact that the lawyers will get $15M for representing what might be less than 100,000 plaintiffs in a class action suit on a product that sold in the millions to consumers (with-in the time period), still makes them "scumbags."