Flexgate: an American judge accuses Apple of having sold defective MacBook Pros

This is a first big setback for Apple in the famous Flexgate affair. Indeed, a judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and accuses the brand of having been aware of this defect which will have impacted many buyers of a Macbook Pro.

The firm at the apple is therefore in a bad position and other accusations could well harm it in the coming weeks.

A case that has gone viral

It all started in 2019 when consumers sued Apple over display issues that appeared on the screen of MacBook Pro models marketed from 2016 to 2017. The user who suffered from the technical problem in question then saw uneven lighting appear in bottom of the screen (see illustration at the top of this article). This malfunction was caused by a thin and fragile cable connected to the screen. By dint of opening and closing the MacBook, this component inevitably ended up degrading.

Logically, a group of angry users decided to file a complaint against Apple, accusing the Cupertino company of knowingly selling these computers. The complainants also stated that tests conducted by Apple before the launch of the product would necessarily have raised the problem. This week, Judge Edward Davila’s first verdict was handed down.

A second accusation against Apple

The judge ruled that Apple was well aware of the MacBook Pro display issue. He said the multinational could only be aware of the malfunction since buyers were massively affected and internal tests must have taken place. Worse still, a plaintiff named Mahan Taleshpour went further in his accusations.

Taleshpour explains that Apple tried to cover up the scandal by deleting comments related to Flexgate on its community forums. The judge rebounded by specifying that if these allegations were to be verified, they would prove a little more the fact that the American brand knew the fragility of the impacted MacBook Pros.

Apple far from out of the woods

Of course, Apple refuted these attacks by stating that Taleshpour has been using his MacBook Pro without a hitch for more than three years and that there has never been a question of removing comments on the forums. Also, the company led by Tim Cook corrected the situation in 2018 by including a longer and more resistant cable in the screens of its laptops.

Be that as it may, the Flexgate affair is not over and will even continue following this first verdict. Apple will have to arm itself well to prepare its defense undermined so far.

Source : MacRumors