Apple is being sued in a class action lawsuit that accuses the Cupertino firm for failing to include vent filters in the design of iMacs and MacBooks. The lawsuit says this has resulted in trapped dust in the machines, causing lower processor speeds and screen smudges from the trapped dust, resulting in consumers paying for expensive repairs.
The firm handling the case, Hagens Berman, posted news about the lawsuit:
“Apple is the most valuable company in the world today because consumers trust it to make reliable, quality products, yet it has failed to remedy one of the most simple and well-known problems in the technology community – the accumulation of dust,” said Steve Berman, managing partner and co-founder of Hagens Berman. “This filter defect is costing Apple owners hundreds of dollars in repairs, and Apple refuses to take responsibility.”
“We intend to hold Apple accountable for this costly defect affecting millions of its computers,” Berman added.
The lawsuit claims some iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Air users have seen “dust stuck behind the screen and gummed up motherboards, causing the computer to run slow and/or overheat.”
The law firm says Apple has charged customers with iMacs and MacBooks out of warranty up to $650 to fix these issues. The lawsuit covers iMac and MacBook models manufactured from 2013 to 2018.
The suit’s named plaintiffs include a photographer who used the affected Apple computer for business purposes, paying upwards of $2,700 for her Retina display screen, only to be plagued by Apple’s filter defect that caused dark smudges to appear after only nine months. According to the lawsuit, the smudges greatly interfered with her work, and the results were noticed by her clients. After a fruitless call to Apple Support, she learned of the widespread issue from a Google search. Apple customer support representatives repeatedly denied knowledge of the problem, according to the complaint. The person who was to perform the fix acknowledged that he has seen this problem before. The suit also names another plaintiff who used his Apple Retina display iMac for business purposes, and was forced to pay $600 for a screen replacement after owning the computer for about five months.
The class action lawsuit is seeking monetary compensation for iMac and MacBook owners, for screens that “did not perform as advertised,” as well as reimbursement for out-of-pocket repair costs, and additional compensations for owners that sold their computers affected computers at a loss due to the dark smudgy spots on their screens or sluggish performance.