Apple to pay $50 million in damages after class-action lawsuit over problems with keyboards with a “butterfly” mechanism in previous generations of MacBooks.

In the lawsuit, Apple customers claimed that the company knew and concealed that there could be problems with the keyboard with this mechanism in the MacBook. Due to dust or small amounts of debris, the keys on the MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro could become stuck or stop working. This applies to models produced from 2015 to 2019, the lawsuit states.

At the same time, Apple support offered replacement keyboards with the same problems.

Plaintiffs will receive compensation of $395 if multiple keyboards are replaced, $125 for one keyboard replacement, $50 for key replacements.

You can also repair the keyboard free of charge within four years of purchase.

The company’s customers filed a class action lawsuit in 2018. Before that, users posted a petition, which collected more than 17 thousand signatures, demanding the recall of laptops with problematic keyboards.

On May 4, 2020, Apple announced the updated MacBook Pro 13 with a new Magic Keyboard and completely abandoned the “butterfly” mechanism in all laptop models from 2016 to 2019.

“Butterfly” was created to make laptops more compact and make typing easier. But the keyboard caused problems for users: it was uncomfortable to type on, dust got stuck under the keys, and repairing the device was too difficult and expensive due to the design of the laptop.

After a class action lawsuit, Apple tried to improve the keyboard with a film, but to no avail. The “butterfly” had to be abandoned.