Apple Sees Key Claims Tossed in AirPods Pro Crackling Suit
Getty Images / Unsplash+
Toggle Dark Mode
Apple won’t be able to shake a class-action lawsuit over crackling AirPods Pro just yet, but the company scored a partial victory this week when US District Judge Noël Wise threw out some of the claims in the case, which accuses Apple of selling first-generation AirPods Pro with known audio defects.
Soon after Apple released its first-generation AirPods Pro earbuds in 2019, users began reporting issues with the new buds, complaining that they were experiencing crackling noises. They also reported issues with the Active Noise Cancellation feature.
Apple initially tried to fix the issues with firmware updates, but they failed to resolve the problem. Then, the iPhone maker launched an AirPods Pro repair program in October 2020. Although that program ended in 2023, during its run, AirPods Pro owners who experienced the issue were able to bring them to their local Apple Store to have them repaired or replaced, even if they were out of warranty or lacked AppleCare+ coverage. Unfortunately, many of the users who took advantage of the program soon found that their replacement AirPods suffered from the same issue.
This led to a class action lawsuit by a trio of Apple customers in late 2024, accusing the Cupertino-based company of violating California consumer protection laws and of false advertising for selling AirPods Pro earbuds with crackling noises.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs requested relief due to the defective nature of the AirPods Pro. While Apple claims that it has fixed the issues in later versions of the first-gen AirPods Pro, the lawsuit alleges that the iPhone maker continued to sell faulty earbuds. The lawsuit also claimed that customers would not have purchased the earbuds if Apple had disclosed the flaw.
The false advertising claims stemmed from Apple’s ads using phrases like “superior sound quality” and “pure, incredibly clear sound,” despite being aware of an issue with the earbuds that caused crackling and static noises.
Apple filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in March, and while it hasn’t managed to get the entire case thrown out, it did get a partial win this week when Judge Wise dismissed several of the “nationwide” consumer-law claims, noting that the plaintiffs hadn’t included a representative from every state covered by the suit, and denied injunctive relief, as the original AirPods Pro model in question is no longer offered for sale.
Claims related to express and implied warranties were also dismissed at this stage, including a claim for unjust enrichment in California. However, the plaintiffs have 21 days to amend and refile them with additional supporting information. This means we can likely expect some of the claims to be revived in the near future.
Apple still faces other claims, including fraud by omission, and is also accused of failing to publicly disclose AirPods Pro defects, despite acknowledging them with the 2020 service program. Judge Wise allowed the plaintiffs to proceed with claims that Apple failed to disclose known issues with sound quality, adding that it was too early to determine whether Apple had a continuing duty to reveal the defect once the one-year warranty expired.
