In November 2022, Apple agreed to a $50 million settlement to resolve a class-action lawsuit over its butterfly keyboard design. The settlement has now been approved by a federal judge this week. And the payout of this settlement is expected to begin soon.
Butterfly Keyboard Saga
In 2015, Apple introduced the butterfly keyboard in the 12-inch MacBook. The keyboard was designed to be thinner and more responsive than previous MacBook keyboards. But it quickly became clear that it was also more fragile. Users reported problems with keys getting stuck, breaking, or repeating letters. Apple issued several revisions to the keyboard, but none of them were able to fully address the problems.
In turn, Apple faced a class-action lawsuit filed by MacBook owners who had been affected by the keyboard problems. In November, Apple settled the class action lawsuit as a judge approved the proposal to pay $50 million to affected customers.
Gizchina News of the week
Final approval granted
Now, as reported by Reuters, a U.S. judge has given final approval for the $50 million settlement. Under this, affected MacBook owners will receive between $50 and $395 payout from Apple.
Some members of the class-action lawsuit had argued that the middle tier of the settlement is insufficient. Under the payout structure, this tier pays out $125 to MacBook users who obtained a single keyboard replacement from Apple.
But the judge rejected those claims. He said that the possibility that a better settlement may have been reached is not a good enough reason to deny approval. Some MacBook users also argued that the settlement should include compensation to MacBook owners who experienced keyboard failures but who did not get them repaired. This, too, was rejected by the judge.
The window to submit your claim for the lawsuit expired back in March. More than 86,000 claims were submitted. So if you submitted a claim, you may soon receive money from Apple. There is no word yet on when payments to class members will begin.
