Faulty MacBook Butterfly Keyboards Cost Apple $50 Million in Lawsuit Settlement

Apple will pay $50 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over faulty butterfly keyboards in MacBook machines. Customers in California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Washington claimed that Apple knew about the faulty butterfly mechanism and hid it from the public.

The MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook models adopted the butterfly keyboard over the course of the last two years, with Apple claiming the keyboard was thinner and more stable. After the keyboards launched, customers realized they were prone to fail.

When dust and other particulates got into the butterfly mechanism, thousands of customers ran into issues with keys repeating, sticking, and otherwise failing.

Apple launched a keyboard repair program in June of last year, but it only covered MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air models for four years, and Apple only replaced butterfly keyboards with another butterfly keyboard, so some customers have run into repeat failures that are no longer covered. The repair program was not enough according to the lawsuit.

There were three generations of the butterfly keyboard, but all of them had issues. Apple phased out the last butterfly keyboard in 2020 and replaced it with the more reliable scissor switch keyboard, which is used in all Mac models.

Lawyers are expecting maximum payouts of $385 for customers who replaced multiple keyboards, $125 for people who replaced one keyboard, and $50 for people who replaced key caps in the lawsuit. The judge in the case will approve the settlement.