In 2022, Apple approved paying a $50 million Settlement for MacBook users with faulty Butterfly Keyboards, and last May the settlement got its final approval. Around 2 days ago, Apple finally started sending the payouts to the afflicted users, according to the damages.
In 2015 when Apple released the Butterfly Keyboard a lot of users complained about the durability and usability of the keyboard due to plenty of problems with it, such as buttons getting stuck, characters getting repeated, and certain buttons being completely unusable.
Apple finally switched to the new Magic Keyboard with the 16-inch MacBook Pro by the end of 2019, and later on, in 2020, it also came to the 13-inch MacBook Air; however, that didn’t seem to end the problem as the case still continued.
Butterfly Keyboard case
The lawsuit started in May 2018 with users claiming that the butterfly keyboard was “inoperable and unsuitable for its ordinary and intended use.” according to 9to5Mac, and the discussion continued throughout 2019 with the judge requiring Apple to face the class action, until later on in 2022 whereas Apple faced a settlement of $50 million, and with that they finally started the claim process.
However, unfortunately, the claim process didn’t go well for the users as you could only claim this settlement if you lived in California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, or Washington. This excludes 43 US states; therefore, a lot of people with butterfly keyboards weren’t covered. Even, the estimated payout amount varied depending on the severity of your keyboard problems:
- Up to $50 for keycap replacements
- Up to $395 for 2 or more top-case replacements
- Up to $125 for 1 top case replacement
The Payments
On June 27th, the court issued a payment order, and Apple stated on its official website that the payments would start in August. and starting the 3rd of August, payments are already being issued for eligible customers.
According to 9to5Mac, they received two $395 checks in the mail today from the keyboard settlement.
