A judge has certified a class action suit against tech giant Apple over its fragile “butterfly” Macbook keyboard design. The butterfly keyboard switches, which Apple has since dropped from its laptop, are notorious for failing if even tiny amounts of dust collect under the keys. One executive wrote about the keyboard tech in an internal communication that “no matter how much lipstick you try to put on this pig . . . it’s still ugly.”
The Verge reports that Judge Edward Davila has certified a class-action lawsuit against Apple for its fragile butterfly keyboard design in its MacBook laptops. The suit includes anyone who purchased a MacBook with a butterfly keyboard in seven states including California, New York, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Washington, and Michigan.
This includes individuals who bought a MacBook model dating between 2015 and 2017, a MacBook Pro model between 2016 and 2019, or a MacBook Air between 2018 and 2019. The case was certified by Judge Davila with seven subclasses on March 8 in California, but the order remained sealed until late last week.
The class-action status of the case now raises the stakes of a lawsuit that was first filed in 2018, three years after Apple added the butterfly switches to its laptops. The butterfly keyboard was slimmer than Apple’s previous design which used industry-standard scissor switches, but many MacBook users found that the new keyboard failed when even tiny particles of dust accumulated around the switches.
This resulted in keys that felt “sticky,” refused to move, failed to register keypresses, or registered multiple presses with a single touch. Apple tweaked the design multiple times but eventually abandoned the switches in 2020.
The suit alleges that Apple knew for years that the switches were defective and that its minor design changes were not fixing the core issue. The suit cites internal communications inside Apple including an executive who wrote that “no matter how much lipstick you try to put on this pig [referring to the butterfly keyboard] . . . it’s still ugly.”
The plaintiffs are accusing Apple of violating several laws across the seven states previously mentioned, including California’s Unfair Competition Law, the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, and the Michigan Consumer Protection Act.
Apple has argued against the class action certification, stating that one consolidated suit should not cover multiple tweaks to the butterfly keyboard. The plaintiffs successfully argued that all butterfly keyboards may have the same fundamental issues due to their shallow design and narrow gaps between keys.
The order states: “None of the design differences that Apple points to changed the tight spaces between the keys, nor the low-travel aspect of the design.”
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com