In a class action lawsuit against Apple, a US federal judge ruled that the Cupertino company knowingly sold defective Mac computers. The claim concerns a malfunction of a MacBook Pro, which causes the backlight at the bottom to appear as stage light and then completely fail.

The court also promised to investigate allegations that Apple deleted forum posts complaining about the issue. Apple initially denied warranty service for such systems, then launched the Display Backlight Service Program to address the issue on the 13-inch model, but dropped the 15-inch model. The plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit argue that Apple, without warning consumers, continued to sell 15-inch models that were susceptible to this problem and she knew about it.

A California federal judge said Apple’s intense pre-release testing of computers, coupled with consumer complaints about an alleged display defect, should have made Apple wary – the court said Apple knew about the problem when it sold the MacBook.

IFixit figured out that the problem was that Apple switched to a much thinner ribbon cable in the affected models. This leads to a rapid deterioration of the component within a fairly short time: first, the so-called “stage light” appears, and ultimately there is a complete failure of the backlight. When the devices were first introduced, the design (used from 2016 to this day) seemed fine. But, as always, the devil is in the little things …

Moreover, the ribbon cable itself costs only $ 6, but the display design used by Apple makes it impossible to replace it. In a clear effort to make the display as thin as possible, the company has made the cables part of the display, so they cannot be replaced without replacing the entire display assembly. As a result, a $ 6 problem turns into a $ 600 disaster.

The lawsuit also accuses Apple of deleting community posts complaining about this issue in its support forums. The company does not appear to deny such cases, but claims they are irrelevant. The judge disagrees and believes this is further evidence that Apple was aware of the defective design.