What you need to know
- Apple has been hit with a class-action lawsuit.
- It's over claims Apple was aware of a MacBook Prod design flaw which caused backlighting issues.
- Only some identified MacBooks were covered by Apple's own repair program.
A new class-action lawsuit alleges that Apple was aware of a design issue within the MacBook Pro which caused backlighting issues.
A class-action complaint lodged Wednesday claims Apple was aware of a MacBook Pro design flaw that caused some units to exhibit backlight display issues.Filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the action targets the so-called "stage light" or "flexgate" issue that presented in MacBook Pro models manufactured in 2016 and 2017.
The suit, filed yesterday, allegedly refers to a problem discovered in 2018 which showed up as "dark patches that run across the bottom" of a problematic display. It was soon discovered that the problem was linked to a flex cable connecting the display to the logic board. A repair program was launched to fix the issue, but only in Apple's 2016 13-inch Macbook Pro. It seems that Apple failed to cover both the 15-inch MacBook and models after 2016 which were also identified as problematic.
Repair costs prior to the program, and for those whose models were not covered by it, were very expensive because it usually meant replacing the entire display.
The suit seeks that Apple is ordered to identify "all defective Macbook Pro laptops", listing them on its website and removing them from the stream of commerce, as well as an award of damages to the class members of the suit.
