Apple’s bid to kill off a class action lawsuit concerning its infamous butterfly keyboard has been dismissed by a federal judge.
US District Judge Edward Davila made the ruling on Monday. Davila declared that Apple must address the claims that its troubleshooting programme neglected to provide an “effective fix” for issues caused by its faulty keyboard design and that the company did not fully compensate customers for the subsequent repair costs (via Reuters).
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The decision came in response to complaints that have plagued the butterfly keyboard since it was first introduced in 2015. They state that MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models with this style of keyboard are prone to sticky and unresponsive keys as well as response issues caused by dust and debris build-up beneath the keys.
According to the lawsuit, Apple often replaced customer butterfly keyboards with… more butterfly keyboards, leaving affected MacBooks susceptible to the same problems they were before they entered its keyboard service programme.
While Apple has never officially stated that its keyboard design was faulty, the company didn’t hesitate to add the most recent 13-inch MacBook Pro to the programme the day it entered the market.
Apple actually made the decision to abandon its butterfly mechanism earlier this month. The release of the 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro marked the end of the ever-unpopular keyboard design, leaving room for a more classic scissor mechanism ‘Magic Keyboard’.
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Apple claims that the Magic Keyboard – which can already be found in its desktop keyboard – provides the “best typing experience ever in a Mac Notebook”.
While the new keyboard has generally been met with positive response from Apple fans, it won’t do much to quiet the complaints of users who’ve been forced to pay out of pocket to repair their devices and reduce past keyboard qualms.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
