Apple Has Reached A $50 Million Settlement Over Faulty MacBook Keyboards

According to Reuters Apple has agreed to pay $50 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that the company was aware of flaws in the butterfly keyboard switches used in several MacBook models.

Apple first introduced the butterfly keyboard as a technology that would allow its laptops to be even thinner. Customers, on the other hand, complained that Apple’s butterfly keyboards were subject to error and could be damaged by a speck of dust, causing the keyboard to unexpectedly repeat letters or fail to register key presses at all.

However the keyboards were notoriously unreliable; primarily, any type of grime, crumb, or dust could cause a key to stop responding or become stuck, resulting in embarrassing typing errors. Apple attempted several fixes for the keyboards, but each new generation failed to resolve the core problem, with computers as recently as the 2019 MacBook Pros and Airs affected. The flaws of the butterfly keyboards inspired songs and lengthy complaints. In a corporate statement, Apple apologized for the problems and announced a service program to replace the keyboards for free beginning in 2019.

The settlement divides payments into three tiers: People who received at least two top case replacements (fixing issues with the keyboard essentially meant disassembling the entire laptop) will receive the most money, while those who received one or more keycap replacements will receive the least. The approximated dividends range from “up to $50” to $395, with the actual amounts determined by the number of people who sign up to be a part of the settlement.