Apple's $50M keyboard settlement deemed 'fair & reasonable' by US judge
Despite objections, a US judge has upheld the $50 million settlement from a class-action lawsuit against Apple over faulty MacBook butterfly keyboards.
Judge approves Apple settlement
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."
Read on AppleInsider
Judge approves Apple settlement
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."
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Blown out of proportion. My daughters haven't had a single issue with their Butterfly action keyboards either. Going on 5 years of usage.
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.
Did it pass engineering tests before shipping or did someone decide to ship a product they knew would be unreliable? Did someone then decide to keep that product for two more generations due to stubborn pride and sunk costs? If engineering found this before shipping then problem is with product management. The real cost for Apple is way beyond 50 million.
Apple should have just stopped with the poorly designed keyboard instead of being pigheaded and in denial.
Personally, and from a product perspective, I put it squarely in the design flaw camp. It should never have been conceived as non-spillproof.
I find it hard to believe that none of the particle ingress testing lit up any warning lights.
I lean towards someone deciding the new design itself outweighed its flaws (including noise) and they had to run with it.
That someone had enough influence to push things through.
Everything was compounded by other design decisions that are typical at Apple. Like the crazy cost of out of warranty repair of a keyboard because it required replacing perfectly good and unaffected parts like the top case and battery.
Everything coming together as it did over those years created the perfect storm and from then on PR damage control was the only real way forward.
This is one inside story that I feel someone would love to tell. Give it some more years and I'm sure more pieces will drop and we'll begin to see what was going on internally and names will appear.
As it is, IMO, every butterfly keyboard is a ticking time bomb. Everything is fine until it is not fine. This isn't like a bad batch of components or an assembly issue.
I see it as a design flaw.
Like I said, the keyboards are fine until they are not.
Can we prove anything either way? Nope.
We'll see perhaps, but it will be a few years from now.
One thing is clear in my mind. If they had been spillproof from the outset, there probably wouldn't have been as much of an outcry. Repairs would have been less and also less costly.
To this day I believe their keyboards lack spill protection yet phones get IP68 ratings.
What is more likely? Phone water immersion or spilt liquids on laptops?
Recent developments like Framework Laptop and Dell Luna Concept show how other companies are doing designs that go beyond being thin.
And the numbers are very, very clear. The failure rate is double that of the previous model and the cost of each repair 75% above. Butterfly keyboards are best avoided.