Apple MacBook owners eligible to claim up to $395 for ‘fraudulently concealed’ keyboard flaw
Asher Notheis
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Anyone who purchased an Apple MacBook from 2015 to 2019 can take a bite out of a $50 million settlement that Apple is accepting applications for over the next couple of months.
The company had agreed to the payout in July of last year, giving it to people who had to take their MacBook in for repair in the mid to late 2010s regarding their laptop’s keyboard. In 2015, Apple introduced the “butterfly” keyboard design, which allowed the latest MacBooks to be thinner but caused technical problems for the customers who bought them, according to CNET.
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Customers complained that while typing on their MacBook’s keyboard, characters would be “repeating unexpectedly; letters or characters not appearing; and/or the keys feeling ‘sticky’ or not responding in a consistent manner,” according to the lawsuit. Plaintiffs allege that Apple was aware of the issues and “fraudulently concealed” them from customers until the company phased out the keyboard designs in 2019.
Apple launched a repair program in 2018 that would replace malfunctioning butterfly keyboards with new ones. The company has denied in filings of committing any wrongdoing.
The amount of money that people who apply for this settlement will receive varies on the issues they had with their MacBook. Anyone who purchased a MacBook with a butterfly keyboard and had to swap out multiple keyboards within the first four years of their purchase is eligible to receive somewhere between $300 and $395.
For people who only had to swap out one keyboard, they will be eligible to receive $125. For people who only had to replace individual keycaps, they are eligible to receive up to $50.
Applicants will need to provide proof of purchase or repair if Apple does not have a record of repair or purchase of their MacBook.
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Those interested in this offer can submit their application online or by printing it out and mailing it to:
re: MacBook Keyboard Litigation Settlement
c/o JND Legal Administration
PO Box 91341
Seattle, WA 98111
The deadline to submit an application is March 7 at 3 a.m. EST. A final approval hearing for this settlement is scheduled for March 16, with payments likely to be sent afterward unless the process is held up by appeals.