Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) on Tuesday agreed to pay $50 million to settle a class-action lawsuit by customers who claimed the tech giant identified that the "butterfly" keyboards on its MacBook laptops were prone to failure but concealed it from the world.
The initial proposed settlement was filed in the federal court in San Jose, California, and requires a judge's approval.
The settlement covers customers who bought MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models between 2015 and 2019 in seven US states, including California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Washington.
Payouts could range from $300 to $395 for people who replaced multiple keyboards, up to $125 for people who replaced one keyboard and $50 for people who replaced a single keycap from an Apple store or authorized repair center, lawyers said in the settlement.
Customers also remain eligible for four years of free keyboard repairs following their purchases.
The lawsuit claimed that butterfly keyboards suffered from sticky and unresponsive keys, and tiny amounts of dust made it difficult to type.
They also said Apple's service program was inadequate because the Cupertino giant often provided replacement keyboards with the same problems.
Apple denied wrongdoing in the settlement.
The case is In re: MacBook Keyboard Litigation, US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 18-02813.
Picture Credit: Apple Insider
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