iPhone 6 ‘Touch Disease’ Class Action Lawsuit Gains Serious Momentum in Utah and California

The class action lawsuit against Apple over the so-called “Touch Disease” that has affected a number of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus smartphones appears to be gaining momentum. According to Motherboard, the lawyers who filed the original class action suit in August have signed on three additional law firms in support of the case. In addition, a second class action lawsuit related to the flaw has also been filed in Utah.

The “Touch Disease” flaw first made headlines this past August, when users began complaining of a thin, flickering gray bar which would appear near the top of their iPhone’s display. Users who have experienced the gray bar noted a gradual loss of touch sensitivity on their phone’s display, many of which have become completely unresponsive altogether. The problem has mainly affected the larger iPhone 6 Plus devices, although a number of iPhone 6 devices have been affected, as well.

The Touch Disease issue is a hardware flaw, reportedly caused by faulty “touch IC” controller chips on the phone’s logic board. According to Motherboard, lack of reinforcement can cause the logic board to “flex or bend even under normal use”, dislodging the touch IC chip from the board. Replacing the screen on an affected phone won’t fix the issue, and as Apple refuses to repair logic boards on their phones, users facing the Touch Disease issue are encouraged to pay $329 for a refurbished replacement – a replacement which may be vulnerable to the same issue in the near future.

Apple has failed to acknowledge the problem in public, although they have done so in federal court. Apple has “requested an extension of time to respond to the complaint”, according to a recent filing in the Utah case. Motherboard found that Apple also recently submitted a filing in the larger California class action suit asking that the Utah and California suits be combined. “Given the similarity between the [Utah] and [California] actions, it would unnecessarily tax judicial resources if these actions were to proceed in separate class action lawsuits—especially where the [Utah] and [California] Plaintiffs purport to represent the same putative class of all consumers who purchased an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus.”

Nearly 10,000 people have contacted Richard McCune, the attorney representing plaintiffs in the California suit asking to join. Motherboard reports that McCune filed an updated lawsuit last Friday night, adding several new plaintiffs and three separate law firms to the suit, including one attorney who is a former federal judge. McCune recently told Motherboard in an email, “with these firms working with us, we believe it gives us the best chance of obtaining a positive result in the case for the owners of the phones.” To read the updated complaint by Richard McCune, follow the link here.

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