Apple Hit With Two Class Action Lawsuits Over iPhone 7 Audio Issues

[MacRumors]

Apple potentially has a legal battle on its hands over iPhone 7 audio chip issues informally known as "Loop Disease."

Two class action lawsuits filed against Apple in California and Illinois over the last week accuse the company of knowingly selling the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus with an audio chip defect that causes issues ranging from a grayed-out speaker button to customers not being heard during phone calls and FaceTime video chats.

The nearly identical complaints, viewed by MacRumors, allege that "the materials used in the iPhone's external casing are insufficient and inadequate to protect the internal parts," eventually resulting in the audio chip losing electrical contact with the logic board due to "flexion" of the device during regular use.

Apple is accused of actively concealing the defect and failing to provide free repairs to affected customers outside of a brief period last year, thereby breaching its warranties and violating multiple California and Illinois consumer protection laws.

The plaintiffs, including California residents Joseph Casillas and De'Jhontai Banks and Illinois residents Brianna Castelli, Karen Lyvers, and Matthew White, are seeking damages "likely in the millions of dollars" on behalf of all other affected iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus customers in the United States.

The plaintiffs are also seeking an order that requires Apple to repair, recall, and/or replace the affected iPhones and to extend the warranties of the devices for a reasonable period of time. A jury trial has been demanded.

In an internal document obtained by MacRumors in May 2018, Apple acknowledged a related microphone issue affecting some iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models. The document, provided to Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers, described the same audio issues mentioned in the class action lawsuits.

Apple's document said service providers could request a "warranty exception" for affected iPhones, which resulted in free repairs for at least some customers, but that abruptly ended in July 2018 after Apple deleted the document.

Since then, many Apple employees have failed to acknowledge the internal guidelines ever existed, resulting in many customers having to pay an out-of-warranty fee of over $300 in the United States for a fix. Of course, some customers have managed to argue their way to a free repair, but this is not common.

iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus devices still within Apple's limited one-year warranty period or covered by AppleCare+ remain eligible for a free repair, but the audio chip issues usually take time to manifest, and warranty coverage has lapsed on many of the devices since they were released in September 2016.

MacRumors has repeatedly contacted Apple for comment regarding the audio chip issues, but we have never received a response.

The complaints are embedded below.

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Article Link: Apple Hit With Two Class Action Lawsuits Over iPhone 7 Audio Issues

 

[Techwatcher]

What a dumb case. You really can sue for anything in the USA lol.

 

[dannyyankou]

What a dumb case. You really can sue for anything in the USA lol.

This is a real issue, my brother had to replace his phone over it. People couldn't hear him on phone calls.

 

[johnnygee]

All aboard!! The gravy train's leavin' the station. Make sure you bring your biscuit.

 

[kemal]

Boils down to a very short PCB trace normal to the axis of flexure. And they knew about it.

 

[dominiongamma]

What a dumb case. You really can sue for anything in the USA lol.

Wish people being sued could sue back and bury them lol Apple could bury trolls easily

 

[Baymowe335]

This is truly devastating.

 

[kemal]

What a dumb case. You really can sue for anything in the USA lol.

They are being sued for the cover-up.

 

[JPack]

This is often the pre-requisite before Apple will launch a repair extension program.

Until then, Apple will forever claim a “small percentage” of owners are affected.

 

[mmomega]

"let's sue for something"
"what?"
"I dunno"
....
(thinking about it for 3 years)
"iPhone 7 ---something?"
"sure, why not?...let's do this"

"how did this audio issue effect us?"
"it completely destroyed our life, we can't move on"

"what will we do with the millions of dollars we win?"
"buy another iPhone ?"
"deal"

 

[sinsin07]

Can’t be a legit month without an Apple Class Action.

Now with that out of the way on to Memorial Day!

 

[44267547]

What a dumb case. You really can sue for anything in the USA lol.

I don’t think it’s fair to say it’s ‘dumb’, not when it’s a real technical issue. But the fact that somebody can sue Apple, at a minimum likely will get their attention if multiple people are experiencing the same issue _if_ Apple won’t acknowledge it until it becomes a larger problem for Apple.

 

[calstanford]

Americans don't do much besides sueing each other trying to get rich

 

[dominiongamma]

Americans don't do much besides sueing each other trying to get rich

majority of people don’t sue, just trolls trying to earn fast cash and an embarrassing themselves in public

 

[normang]

Does seem very odd that it takes 3 years to get around to suing over a device that was first released in 2016... just upgrade and get over it.. and how many devices did it actually affect? If it were as bad as it always gets made out to be, it would not have taken this long to get to this point.. Course let Sammy have a crummy device, and no one cares to bother to sue..

 

[bruinsrme]

Americans don't do much besides sueing each other trying to get rich

The lawyers are the only ones getting rich off these cases.

 

[jezbd1997]

What a dumb case. You really can sue for anything in the USA lol.

It's a real issue, my mum's 7 plus had it on and off.

 

[Gutwrench]

Wish people being sued could sue back and bury them lol Apple could bury trolls easily

If it’s that ridiculously baseless then Apple can ask for summary judgement. And if successful the lawyers in the class action can decide their next move.

 

[JPack]

Does seem very odd that it takes 3 years to get around to suing over a device that was first released in 2016... just upgrade and get over it.. and how many devices did it actually affect? If it were as bad as it always gets made out to be, it would not have taken this long to get to this point.. Course let Sammy have a crummy device, and no one cares to bother to sue..

Not really, given that warranty covers the first year and AppleCare+ covers the second year.

iPhone 6 Touch Disease and MacBook keyboard lawsuits didn't gain traction until 2016 and 2018, respectively.

 

[longofest]

What a dumb case. You really can sue for anything in the USA lol.

Its a dumb case to sue the manufacturer of a phone for the phone breaking and being useless as a phone?

 

[sinsin07]

Americans don't do much besides sueing

Nice try.
325,145,000 some odd million people.
Want to share your facts of how many of those millions open CA's

each other trying to get rich

Again, can you show any facts on how many people in the CAs get rich from the CA?

Or was your post just a gripe about Americans disguised as a meaningful fact?

 

[bjwhite3114]

My son needs an updated phone and I was looking at picking up a used iPhone 7 on swappa. Is this a generation of iPhones to avoid?

 

[Chazzle]

This is a real issue, but it’s caused by neglecting your device.

They say in the suit that it happens from normal use, but they must be defining normal use as dropping your phone so many times and sitting on your phone causing it to bend and stress the internal components to the point of breaking.

 

[novakedy2]

Does seem very odd that it takes 3 years to get around to suing over a device that was first released in 2016... just upgrade and get over it.. and how many devices did it actually affect? If it were as bad as it always gets made out to be, it would not have taken this long to get to this point.. Course let Sammy have a crummy device, and no one cares to bother to sue..

What Apple does by forcing these people to upgrade their devices is what’s breeding this sort of rude attitude toward a big issue like this. My very best friend and I bought our iPhone 7 Plus’ together on the same day. Just over a year and a half or so, past warranty, and I’ve already upgraded to the iPhone X, her phone has this issue. I swap her out with my old one and it almost immediately had the same issue. She is, like I’m sure many are, not in a financial position to just add monthly costs to their phone bills for upgrades that shouldn’t be necessary for what should be a perfectly working and still relevant phone. A lot of people fail to think about those struggling to just pay their normal bills and can’t even use hand me down phones because of an issue like this one. I hope this gains traction and they make a repair or replacement possible

 

[RoboFlex]

This is a real issue, my brother had to replace his phone over it. People couldn't hear him on phone calls.

The issue is not dumb, suing Apple for millions of dollars is dumb. If the product didn't work then don't buy another. The only people going to make out are the lawyers. That is is. Class action lawsuits are made for lawyers to make money. I was in a class action lawsuit once and it recovered over $100 million dollars. I got $7.68. Lawyer, over $50 million.