Apple was hit with a series of class actions on the issue of the MacBook's butterfly in 2018. Patently Apple covered at least two of class action lawsuits here: 01 and 02. In July 2022 Apple reached a $50 million settlement. The issue begin in 2015.

Apple in July last year agreed to pay $50 million to settle the class-action lawsuit over flawed butterfly keyboards in MacBooks. Around 86,000 people filed the claim that the new design failed when even tiny particles of dust accumulated around the switches.

Late last week a US federal court gave final approval to the $50 million class-action settlement. Judge Edward Davila on Thursday called the settlement involving Apple’s infamous “butterfly” keyboards “fair, adequate and reasonable.”

Apple won’t have to admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement agreement. Before this week, some members of the class action lawsuit attempted to challenge the deal on the grounds that a proposed $125 payout for one group in the class was not enough, an appeal Judge Davila rejected.

There’s no word when claimants can expect their payment to be sent out, but the lawyers involved in the case said they “look forward to getting the money out to our clients.”

The Judge denied any appeals. “The possibility that a better settlement may have been reached — or that the benefits provided under the settlement will not make class members 'whole' — are insufficient grounds an appeal."

The judge also rejected a request for compensation from MacBook owners who experienced keyboard failures but did not get their computers serviced by Apple.

The video below from Unbox Therapy was posted 4 years ago outlining the issue. It received 18.2 million views illustrating this was a hot issue at the time. 

Waiting years to get compensated and not fully compensated and Apple getting off with not having to admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement agreement, dings Apple's image. They're the richest tech company in the world and should have gone out of their way to make it right for their customers who lost productivity and had to aggravatingly deal with this issue via a lawsuit to force Apple to settle. In late 2019 Apple returned to a more conventional keyboard design with the 16-inch MacBook Pro, proving they knew the keyboard design was defective. Like in the car industry, there should have been a product recall.