A federal judge has rejected Apple’s bid to dismiss a proposed class action lawsuit by customers who said it knew and concealed how the “butterfly” keyboards on its Mac laptops were prone to failure.
According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California, said the tech giant 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.
According to this — and two other lawsuits — “thousands” of MacBook and MacBook Pro owners have experienced some type of failure with Apple’s butterfly keyboard, thus rendering the machine useless. The suits claim the design is such that small amounts of dust or debris impede normal switch behavior, causing keystrokes to go unregistered.
Apple debuted its “butterfly” keyswitch design in the 12-inch MacBook before incorporating an improved second-generation version in 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pros. The 16-inch MacBook Pro has a designed “scissor switch” keyboard designed to be more reliable. The keyboard is expected to debut on other Mac laptops in 2020.
