In the wake of an online petition and a class action lawsuit filed in the United States, another class action suit has been filed in Canada against Apple Canada over GPU issues affecting some 15-inch and 17-inch 2011 MacBook Pros equipped with an AMD graphics chip.
The virtually identical class-action lawsuit was filed in Canada by Montreal-based legal firm Lex Group Attorneys and argues that certain 2011 MacBook Pros suffer from a design and manufacturing defect that causes graphical issues such as severe screen distortion, pixilation, graphical artifacts, and ghosting, often rendering the notebooks unusable.
Official court documents say the defect is caused by the lead-free solder used to connect the AMD GPU to the logic board of the affected MacBook Pro models. The lawsuit says customers have been forced to pay up to $600 out of pocket for out of warranty repair costs. It charges Apple with ignoring the issue and failing to reimburse owners who paid to have their MacBook Pro repaired.
Apple, typically tight-lipped in these matters, has not commented on either the U.S. or Canadian class action suits. If the lawsuits are successful, affected customers in Canada and parts of the U.S. could be entitled to a settlement from Apple.
