Apple recently had to face no less than three class action lawsuits related to the MacBook Pro’s butterfly keyboard. Now, a class action lawsuit claims that every single Apple Watch model, from the initial Series 0 to Series 3, suffers from the same shortcoming.
The lawsuit claims that all of the Watches have the same flaw, which causes the screens to shatter, crack or detach from the main body of the Watch (referred to as the “Defect”), through no fault of the wearer, often just days or weeks after purchase.
It is further claimed that Apple knew about the problem right from the start, and that the company actually has a policy of simply dismissing claims regarding this issue.
Apple was reportedly aware that the watches were faulty around the time that it started retailing them to the general public. Consumers started to complain to the company about this malfunction almost immediately after it launched the various models.
The documents before the court claim that Apple not only failed to disclose but also actively tried to hide the Defect to the Plaintiff and other Class members before, during and after the time that they bought these watches.
Furthermore, the company’s conduct when being confronted over the issue shows that it has an internal policy to deny that the Defect exists, or to claim that it was caused by “accidental damage” brought about by the consumer’s actions, and then on these grounds refuse to honour its own limited warranty.
Apple earlier conceded that there were problems with Series 0 watches. It extended the warranties to three years for both back covers coming off and swollen batteries. Later, it offered a similar extension in respect of some Series 2 models with swollen batteries, and acknowledged an issue with certain Series 3 models with clearly visible stripe marks on the display.