MacBook Retina Display Class Action Lawsuit

By Sarah Mirando | March 18, 2013

Category: Legal News

By Matt O’Donnell

MacBook Pro Retina Display A MacBook Pro user has filed a class action lawsuit against Apple alleging its LG retina display screens suffer from brightness, color and image display flaws, including the display of faint or “ghost” images after a picture is no longer on the screen.

Plaintiff Beau Hodges says he purchased his MacBook Pro for $2,100 last year and began experiencing image retention issues on his screen within a month after the purchase. Hodges says a faint picture of a previously displayed image would sometimes linger on his screen for several minutes. Other MacBook users with LG screens have reported that these ghostly images are permanently burned on the screen, according to the class action lawsuit.

Hodges alleges that the LG screens fail to live up to Apple’s marketing claims that the MacBook’s retina display screens are the best on the market, and consumers have no way of knowing whether they’re purchasing a MacBook containing a flawed LG display panel versus the unaffected ones made by Samsung until after they purchase the product and experience the defect.

Hodges contends that Apple must have known about the differences between the two versions “because it spent a considerable amount of time testing the products during research and development and has been inundated with complaints from customers about the LG screen’s problems,” according to the class action lawsuit. However, Apple fails to notify consumers about the differences.

Hodges is seeking damages for a proposed class of all MacBook Pro customers who received an LG-manufactured retina display screen.

The MacBook Retina Display Class Action Lawsuit case is Hodges v. Apple Inc., Case No. 13-cv-01128, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Update: A federal judge dismissed the MacBook Retina Display Class Action Lawsuit on August 12, 2013.