Judge Approves Apple's Massive MacBook Keyboard Lawsuit Payout

A California federal judge has given preliminary approval to Apple's plan to pay $50 million to settle a long-running class-action lawsuit over the faulty MacBook butterfly keyboard. MacTrast reports: Law360 says the payment will include $13.6 million in attorney fees, up to $2 million in litigation costs, and $1.4 million in settlement administration costs, with the rest distributed to class members. The lawsuit covers customers in California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Washington, who complained that Apple knew of and concealed the fact that its 2015 and later MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro machines were equipped with "butterfly" keyboards that were prone to failure, and that its repair program for the keyboard was insufficient, as the replacement keyboards could also fail. [...]

Apple initially agreed to the settlement in July 2022. Customers in the above-mentioned states are expected to receive maximum payouts of $395 to customers who replaced multiple keyboards, $125 to people who replaced one keyboard, and $50 to people who replaced keycaps. Mac owners who received butterfly keyboard replacements will begin receiving class notices later in December.

$50M USD is not "massive"

[nadass]

Esp considering $17M USD are not going to the class members, that leaves only $33M USD to class members. AAPL probably recouped those costs within 5 business days of setting aside some loose change into an interest-baring escrow account.

Re: $50M USD is not "massive"

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Heh. Unless they only employ money-making strategies like that when they are ruled against in court I'm not sure why the word 'recoup' is being used as if they didn't still lose a wad of money.

I get it, Apple has deep pockets, just nitpicking your choice of terms.

What a disgrace! Chump change

[Canberra1]

Deliberate concealment of a hidden and latent defect. For years! The settlement should be refunds + interest + cost of dropping in MAC for repair. Any original macs should be fixed if they come through the door, even dead ones - no time limit from now to +7 years. If concealment does not attract 4X damages, that is bad. I also know Acer has a too-short folded over trackpad cable - that they flat out lied to me and said no reports whatsover - but Google found heaps. Consumer action now has to ripple across R

Re:

[dgatwood]

Deliberate concealment of a hidden and latent defect. For years! The settlement should be refunds + interest + cost of dropping in MAC for repair. Any original macs should be fixed if they come through the door, even dead ones - no time limit from now to +7 years. If concealment does not attract 4X damages, that is bad. I also know Acer has a too-short folded over trackpad cable - that they flat out lied to me and said no reports whatsover - but Google found heaps. Consumer action now has to ripple across ROW.

Worse, this pays squat to those of us who gave up and replaced those pieces of crap early because the keyboards were too unreliable to use. I'm out thousands of dollars because of their screw-up, but I'll get just $50 for the two sets of keycaps I had to buy just to keep it limping along and constantly dropping keystrokes. And for most of the folks in that class, switching platforms isn't an option, so Apple is laughing all the way to the bank on this one.

I think this is one of those situations when we ne

Re: What a disgrace! Chump change

[fortfive]

you could have sued in small claims yourself if it really meant that much to you.

Re:

[dgatwood]

you could have sued in small claims yourself if it really meant that much to you.

That's the thing, realistically, the only way an individual wins against a big corporation in small claims court is if they don't send an attorney to contest it, and I live probably single-digit miles from Apple's headquarters, so what are the odds of that?

Re:

[Canberra1]

Correct. The pain has to fit the culpability. You will note the waiver you are forced to accept with Apple and MS that they are not responsible for incidental losses or data. I think Louis Rossmann has called out these jokers numerous times before. And the battery saga. I think the pain level should be what Apple charged for the first repairs plus compound interest at 7%, and double that until the point in which they fessed up. And forced to fix any presented in their shop - no proof of ownership or nothing

Re:

[thegarbz]

AAPL probably recouped those costs within 5 business days

Good. Companies should not be punished for minor bullshit like this, especially when they honoured repair / warranties.

Re:

[geekmux]

Esp considering $17M USD are not going to the class members, that leaves only $33M USD to class members. AAPL probably recouped those costs within 5 business days of setting aside some loose change into an interest-baring escrow account.

It's a legal system now. Anyone peddling "justice", is selling it.

Sure, lawyer fees amount to legalized extortion. I would suggest you hire a lawyer to fight that, but I fear that would be quite pointless.

Canada

[fluffernutter]

So if you have a faulty keyboard in Canada?

Re:Canada

[ShanghaiBill]

So if you have a faulty keyboard in Canada?

American courts have no jurisdiction in Canada.

Canada, like most countries, has its own judiciary.

Re:

[fluffernutter]

So how does a person win a class action here?

Whips out calculator...

[Fly Swatter]

And exactly 1/3 of that 50 is going to legal fees. That is worse than the Apple store 30% fee!

Lawyers fees should be capped to 10 percent.

Re:

[serviscope_minor]

Yeah the lawyers should work for free!

Defamation of Butterfly

[John.Banister]

Now that Apple has been shown to have practiced butterfly keyboard wrongdoing, someone who has designed a butterfly keyboard that actually works should sue Apple for Defamation of Butterfly. Who would ever do a production run of butterfly keyboards that work now that Apple has convinced the public that butterfly keyboards fail?

Re:

[nextTimeIsTheLast]

I couldn't get to the original law360 article to check, but I find it highly unlikely Apple admitted liability, so no, Apple has likely not been shown to have practiced butterfly keyboard wrongdoing. And there is no precedent for further lawyer pocket lining. By the way, I am guessing that all the class members get will probably be like $1.50c, so a complete waste of time for all concerned (except the lawyers of course who make $13m).

And another point, it seems the keyboards failed because crumbs got unde

50million massive?

[arbiter1]

Yea that is really gonna hurt a company that posts yearly revenue of over 300billion. they are gonna lose 0.015% of their money made last year. They probably lose that in weekly accounting errors

Re: 50million massive?

[MysteriousPreacher]

What would you expect? It's not like the keyboards, flawed as they were, zapped users with gamma radiation.

I piost this

[spoot]

from a MacBookPro13,3 that has had the ieyboard replaced once and is still a POOOS. I liv in Texas, and am screwed.