Update, 5:20pm ET: Girard Sharp partner Simon Grille, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, contacted Ars to clarify that the payouts would cover affected MacBook buyers in any US state, not just the seven initially involved in the lawsuit as we originally stated.
The class definition in the approval order (PDF) covers "all persons and entities in the United States who purchased, other than for resale, one or more Class Computers."
Original story: If you bought a MacBook with one of Apple's low-profile butterfly-switch keyboards, and if you ever had that keyboard repaired, good news! A judge has approved a $50 million settlement to a class-action lawsuit that Apple agreed to in July, meaning that payouts to affected users (and the attorneys involved) can begin soon.
According to Macworld, there will be three tiers of payouts: $50 to people who had individual keycaps replaced, $125 to people who had one keyboard replacement, and $395 to people who had to go in for two or more replacements.
For those unfamiliar, MacBooks introduced between 2015 and 2019 used a new low-profile keyboard with a "butterfly" switch mechanism that saved space but also resulted in firmer keys that moved less than they did before. Early complaints were mostly subjective and centered on the keyboard's feel compared to previous scissor-switch designs. But as time passed, it became clear that butterfly-switch keyboards also failed at a higher rate than the scissor-switch designs. These problems persisted despite at least four major revisions to the butterfly-switch mechanism.
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