Judge dismisses potential new 'flexgate' lawsuit against Apple

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What you need to know

  • Apple won't face another lawsuit over 'flexgate'.
  • A judge has dismissed an appeal seeking to revive a class action lawsuit.
  • Apple was sued over cables in its MacBook that were too short and would eventually fail.

Apple will not face a fresh 'flexgate' lawsuit after a judge dismissed an appeal seeking to revive the case.

As reported by Bloomberg Law:

Apple defeated an appeal to revive a would-be class action over allegedly defective MacBook Pro displays, after the Ninth Circuit said Thursday that the company had no duty to disclose the flaw.

Apple was sued in 2020 by a class-action group claiming the company knew that its MacBook Pro had a flawed design from 2016 onwards where the cables were too short, eventually causing them to fail:

The lawsuit alleged that MacBook Pro models released after 2016 were designed with cables that are too short and eventually fail with ordinary wear and tear. The plaintiffs claimed violations California's Consumer Legal Remedies Act and Unfair Competition Law.The lawsuit also alleged fraudulent concealment under a common law theory, and violations of deceptive trade statutes in Washington, Florida, New Jersey, Michigan, Alaska, Missouri, Massachusetts, and Texas.

With the appeal defeated, Apple will not face a class-action lawsuit in the case.

A teardown of Apple's new best MacBook, the 2021 model, revealed last year that Apple had replaced the culprit cables with new ones that had 100% more slack, hopefully putting 'flexgate' to bed once and for all.

Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design.

Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9