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“Flexgate” rises again.
A few years ago, a redesign of Apple’s MacBook Pro laptop prompted some backlash. The redesign introduced a notable problem with the laptop’s display flexing and bending with use. The display would also be damaged by the laptop’s notable fragile display cable, causing an annoying “stage lighting” effect along the bottom edge where large, black splotches would creep upward. This problem was exacerbated by Apple’s response to complaints, as the company tried to play it off for a long time before eventually opening up a repair program after receiving significant bad press. This event, which would come to be known as “Flexgate,” has been quietly simmering in the background ever since, and it looks like it’s about to come to a boil.
Efforts to get a formal lawsuit against Apple over Flexgate have been underway for a while now, while Apple has made several motions to have the charges dismissed. As of yesterday, though, the lawsuit has been given the official go-ahead by northern district of California Judge Edward Davila, who ruled that Apple should have been completely aware of their displays’ problems, and yet still chose to sell them.
“The court finds that the allegations of pre-release testing in combination with the allegations of substantial customer complaints are sufficient to show that Apple had exclusive knowledge of the alleged defect,” the judge’s statement reads.
Apple knew it was selling defective MacBook displays, judge concludes https://t.co/BG4Zr9RbL6 pic.twitter.com/STujBKnPHS
— The Verge (@verge) April 2, 2021
While the lawsuit has not yet reached full-on class-action status, there are currently nine different plaintiffs on deck with formal complaints, and Judge Davila has invited them to amend their complaints as necessary. Coincidentally (or perhaps not-so-coincidentally), this is occurring at the same time as another lawsuit against Apple from consumers, this one for the notoriously fragile butterfly keyboards added to MacBook laptops back in 2015.
