A judge has certified a class action lawsuit against Apple for its fragile butterfly keyboard design. The suit applies to anyone who has purchased an Apple MacBook with a butterfly keyboard in seven states: California, New York, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Washington and Michigan. These include people who bought a MacBook model that dates between 2015 and 2017, a MacBook Pro model between 2016 and 2019, or a MacBook Air between 2018 and 2019.
Judge Edward Davila upheld the case in California by seven sub-classes on March 8, but the order was sealed until late last week. That raises concerns for a case first filed in 2018, three years after Apple added the controversial butterfly switches to its laptops.
The butterfly keyboard was slimmer than Apple’s previous design, which used a standard ratchet switch. But many disgruntled MacBook users found that Apple’s refurbished keyboard failed when even small particles of dust accumulated around the switches. As a result, keys that felt “sticky” could not register keystrokes, or multiple hits were recorded with a single hit. Apple has adjusted its butterfly keyboard several times, but after persistent complaints, it abandoned the switches in 2020.
According to this case, Apple has known for years that its butterfly switches were defective – and that the incremental changes did not solve the core problem. It cites internal communications within Apple, including a manager who wrote that “no matter how much lipstick you try to put on this pig [referring to the butterfly keyboard] . . . it’s still ugly. ”
The plaintiffs accuse Apple of violating several laws in the seven states listed above, including California’s unfair competition law, the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Commercial Law and the Michigan Consumer Protection Act. At the moment, they are not asking for a nationwide certification, but the law firm behind the case has invited any U.S. buyer of a particular MacBook to complete a survey.
Apple has argued against power certification, saying that one consolidated suit should not cover multiple adjustments to the butterfly keyboard. But the plaintiffs have successfully argued that all butterfly keyboards can have the same fundamental problems due to their shallow design and narrow gaps between the keys. “None of the design differences pointed out by Apple have changed the narrow spaces between the keys, nor the aspect of the design’s low journey,” the order reads. Apple would later have to argue that these basic features did not make the design unreliable – and that it did not deliberately make defective keyboards for years.