AirPods Pro Lawsuit Says Apple Didn’t Remedy ‘Crackling’ and ANC Issues with First-Gen Models
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Soon after Apple released its first-generation AirPods Pro wireless earbuds in 2019, users began reporting crackling noises coming from their new earbuds, as well as issues with the Active Noise Cancellation feature. Now, a trio of Apple customers have filed a class action lawsuit against the Cupertino company, saying it violated California consumer protection laws and is guilty of false advertising for continuing to sell AirPods Pro earbuds with the above issues.
Apple initially tried to fix the issues with firmware updates. However, the updates failed to resolve the problems. Then, in October 2020, the iPhone maker launched an AirPods Pro repair program. When AirPods Pro owners experienced the issue, they could bring them into an Apple Store for repair or replacement, even if they were out of warranty or AppleCare+ coverage. However, many soon found their replacement AirPods suffered from the same problem.
In the class action lawsuit, plaintiffs are requesting “relief” due to the defective nature of the AirPods Pro. While Apple claimed that it fixed the issues in later versions of the first-generation AirPods Pro, the lawsuit says it continued to sell the faulty earbuds.
The class action charges, however, that the apparent audio defects affect all AirPods Pro Gen 1 headphones, regardless of their manufacture date.
Though consumers began to complain about the sound problems with the AirPods Pro Gen 1 soon after their release in October 2019—and even though Apple has admitted to the audio issues itself—the company continued to sell the devices for hundreds of dollars a pair until September 2022, the case shares.
The lawsuit says customers would not have purchased the AirPods Pro had Apple made the flaw clear. It says the service program proved to be worthless, as it simply allowed customers to swap one faulty pair of earbuds for another equally faulty pair. The suit also says a close examination of the earbuds’ design and components before and after the cutoff date reveals no significant difference that would have remedied the problem.
As reported by ClassAction.org, the law firm further claims that Apple was fully aware of this and extended the program by another year.
Just two weeks shy of the scheduled October 31, 2021 end date for Apple’s AirPods Pro service program announced a year prior, the company updated this timeline to cover affected AirPods for three years after the first retail sale of the unit, essentially adding another year of coverage, the case relays.
It should be noted that Apple does this when issues continue to emerge over an extended period to ensure that owners who experience the problem later are still covered by the resulting programs.
The lawsuit also accuses Apple of false advertising for using ad copy like “superior sound quality” and “pure, incredibly clear sound” while they were aware of an issue with the earbuds making crackling and static noises.
The court must now determine if the case deserves class-action status. If you’re a first-generation AirPod Pro owner affected by this, there’s nothing for you to do now. If Apple negotiates a settlement with the plaintiffs, AirPod Pro customers will be informed how to make a claim.
