Judge Approves Apple's Plan to Pay $50 Million to Settle Butterfly Keyboard Lawsuit

A California federal judge gave preliminary approval to Apple's plan to pay $50 million to settle a long running class-action lawsuit. Up to $2 million in litigation costs will be included in the payment, with the rest going to class members.

Customers in California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Washington complained that Apple was aware of the faulty keyboard mechanism used in MacBook Pro machines. According to the lawsuit, Apple hid the defect in order to keep selling the devices.

The butterfly keyboard was added to the MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro in 2015 and 2016 in order to allow for a thinner design. The initial butterfly keyboard Macs were prone to failure.

When dust and other particulates got into the butterfly mechanism, there were problems with repeating keys, sticky keys, and keys that failed. Apple launched a keyboard repair program in June of last year after complaints about the butterfly technology.

The repair program only covered MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air models for four years, and Apple only replaced butterfly keyboards with another butterfly keyboard, so repeat failures were not covered. According to the lawsuit, Apple's repair program wasn't enough.

There were three butterfly keyboard generations, but all of them were prone to failure, because Apple tried to modify the butterfly mechanism to be more durable. The last butterfly keyboard will be phased out by Apple in 2020. The scissor switch mechanism does not cause the same problems as before.

The judge overseeing the case approved the settlement early on, despite Apple initially agreeing to it. Customers who had two or more topcase replacements will receive an award of up to $395 for each repair.

Class notices will be sent to Mac owners who received butterfly keyboards.