Apple Knowingly Sold Defective Macbook Pros, Says California Judge
Apple Knowingly Sold Defective Macbook Pros, Says California Judge
BY TYLER DURDEN SATURDAY, APR 03, 2021 - 08:00 PM
When Apple launched a new butterfly keyboard with the MacBook
Pro some years ago, it was slapped with a class-action lawsuit for its
defective keyboards. Now a second class-action lawsuit could be in the making
called "flexgate."
According to The Verge,
Apple opted for fragile flex cables instead of beefier wires for its screens on
MacBook Pro models in 2016. The new lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for
the Northern District of California, is over the MacBook Pro developing
"stage light" issues at the bottom of the screen, eventually leading
to a complete failure.
Law360 reports that US District Judge Edward Davila decided this week to allow the "flexgate" lawsuit to move forward, ruling that Apple knew it was selling defective MacBook Pros.
A
California federal judge has trimmed a proposed class action against Apple
claiming it hid display defects on 15-inch MacBook Pro laptops but left intact
fraudulent omission claims after determining the proposed class adequately
alleged Apple failed to disclose information concerning the alleged defect.
US
District Judge Edward Davila determined that the consumers' allegations of
Apple conducting intensive pre-release testing, which the consumers say was
conducted by a team of "reliability engineers" who carried out stress
tests and other procedures that would have alerted Apple to defects behind the
display failures, sufficiently demonstrate that Apple was aware of the alleged
defect.
The judge
added that consumer complaints concerning the alleged display defect also would
have put Apple on alert.
"The
court finds that the allegations of pre-release testing in combination with the
allegations of substantial customer complaints are sufficient to show that
Apple had exclusive knowledge of the alleged defect," the judge
wrote in his opinion.
The problem that Apple incurred was that it switched to a
thinner ribbon cable in the affected models that would result in a tear and
eventual failure of the screen. The problem was so widespread, consistent, and
infuriating to tens of thousands of Apple users that it was mindboggling Apple
CEO Tim Cook would even allow the defective models even to be sold.
But while Cook had to please shareholders at the expense of
selling defective MacBook Pros, the company ran across a significant issue to
swap out the $6 cord. Apple's design made it nearly impossible to replace. The
$6 problem was transformed into a $600 disaster as Apple eventually had to
replace the already sold MacBook Pro cables.
The lawsuit also accuses Apple of deleting Official Apple
Support Community posts complaining about the issue.
At the
moment, there are nine different plaintiffs lined up for the case against Apple
knowingly selling defective Macbook.
Comments
Post a Comment