Apple Launched MacBook Pros in 2016 With Defective Cables, Alleges San Jose Complaint

Apple knowingly began selling MacBook Pros in 2016 with defective display cables, in violation of California’s unfair competition law and its Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, alleged a complaint (in Pacer) Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose. Mahan Taleshpour paid just over $2,500 for a 15-inch MacBook Pro in April 2017, and the laptop’s display was its “main selling point,” said the complaint, seeking class-action status. To make the MacBook Pros “thinner and sleeker,” Apple used “thin flexible ribbon cables” to connect the display screen to the controller board inside the laptop, it said. The cables “function correctly” to start, but their placement “causes them to rub against the control board each time the laptop is opened or closed,” it said. The wear and tear eventually causes display artifacts, and ultimately renders the laptop “useless,” it said. The deterioration manifests itself over a prolonged period of time, well after the MacBook Pro’ one-year warranty expires, it said. Rectifying the defect requires replacing the entire display module, not just the worn-out cables, for many hundreds of dollars, it said. Apple didn’t comment Thursday.