In 2018, Apple faced a class-action lawsuit in the United States (US) due to widespread issues with its butterfly keyboards. These keyboards were used in MacBook models manufactured between 2015 and 2019.
According to Reuters, customers from several states, including California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Washington, alleged that Apple knowingly sold defective keyboards and failed to address the problems adequately.
Thousands of users encountered issues with keys repeating, sticking, and failing when dust and other particles infiltrated the butterfly mechanism. This controversy prompted legal action against the tech giant.
In response, Apple launched a keyboard repair program in June 2018. However, the program covered only MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air models for four years after the product was originally purchased.
Moreover, according to MacRumors, Apple had only replaced faulty butterfly keyboards with new butterfly keyboards, which led to repeat failures for some customers.
Apple attempted to improve the butterfly mechanism through three generations of the keyboard. Despite these efforts, the issues persisted.
Eventually, Apple phased out the butterfly keyboard in 2020, replacing it with the more reliable scissor-switch mechanism—a technology predating the butterfly keys.
To settle the lawsuit, Apple agreed to pay USD50 million (~RM236 million) and customers from the states mentioned above are getting USD50 (~RM236) to USD395 (~RM1,864) depending on their claims.
MacRumors reports that although the lawsuit was resolved years ago, the settlement only received court approval on 25 May 2023. The payment order was issued on 27 June 2024, and approved claims are set to receive payments by August 2024.
If you are wondering if you will get the settlement, the bad news is, you will not. Malaysian MacBook owners are out of luck as this lawsuit only happened in the US.
