Apple settles £42m lawsuit over MacBook keyboards
Apple has settled a $50m (£42m) lawsuit over its “butterfly” MacBook keyboards, after claimants said the tech giant knowingly sold products that were prone to failure.
Despite being launched as an improved design for keyboards back in 2019, MacBook customers across seven US states launched a class-action complaint against Apple, stating that the firm concealed that it knew the products suffered from unresponsive keys and stickiness.
The claims related to MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops, between 2015 to 2019, and across California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Washington.
As reported by the BBC, if a preliminary deal is approved, lawyers for the customers can expect maximum payouts of $300 to $395 to people who replaced multiple keyboards, $125 to people who replaced one keyboard and $50 to those who replaced key caps.
Apple phased out the butterfly keyboard in 2020, opting for standard scissor switches instead, but denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle.
The news adds to the tide of legal action being taken against the firm.
Just yesterday, it was revealed that the company was being sued over its Apple Pay system for accusations of anti-competitive behaviour by stifling competition from other payment apps.
The class action complaint filed to a California court by the payment card credit union Affinity Credit Union alleges that the iPhone maker used its market power to resist competition from other payment apps.
The complaint said that Apple requires mobile device customers to also acquire its mobile wallet Apple Pay and “prevents consumers from using competing mobile wallets capable of offering competing tap and pay solutions.”