According to the latest report, a California federal judge dismissed a class-action lawsuit that Apple was facing for the stage light issue affecting the MacBook Pro display. The lawsuit was filed in May 2020, accusing Apple of deliberately concealing defects in the display flexible cables that affect certain 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro’s, because the effect is similar to stage lighting, so it is commonly called.
The judge in charge of the case said that because the defect appeared after the warranty period, Apple did not need to disclose it because it was not a safety issue. Although the lawsuit has been dismissed, the judge allowed the appeal to continue. The plaintiff needs to put forward the argument that the stage light issue is a safety hazard and provide evidence that Apple definitely knows that the so-called defect will occur.
The stage lighting problem affected the MacBook Pro models released in 2016 and 2017, and some of them began to experience uneven lighting at the bottom of the screen a few years later. This kind of stage light result may cause the backlight system to fail completely. The repair site iFixit found that the problem was caused by a delicate flexible cable, which is prone to wear and tear after the display is repeatedly turned on and off.
Apple updated the design of the display cable on the 2018 MacBook Pro, and launched a free maintenance program in May 2019, covering 13-inch MacBook Pro models starting in 2016. The class-action lawsuit that has now been dismissed seeks compensation for all costs incurred in repairing or replacing the affected MacBook Pro models and calls on Apple to extend the free repair program to 15-inch MacBook Pro models.
