Apple Faces Class Action Suit In US Court Over AirPods Pro Audio Defects

Apple Faces Class Action Suit In US Court Over AirPods Pro Audio Defects

The complainants claimed the company continued to sell the product regardless of the manufacturing date

A US class action lawsuit has accused Apple of misleading consumers by selling first-generation AirPods Pro despite known audio defects.

The lawsuit alleged that the tech giant was aware of issues like crackling or static sounds, loss of bass and increased background noise, but continued selling the product at a premium price until September 2022.

The 51-page lawsuit claims the company misrepresented the audio quality of its headphones and acknowledged audio defects on its website with a dedicated page for troubleshooting issues in devices.

Its US support pages mentioned, "Apple has determined that a small percentage of AirPods Pro may experience sound issues. Affected units were manufactured before October 2020.”

The text further read that an affected headphone may exhibit one or more of the following behaviors:

• Crackling or static sounds that increase in loud environments, with exercise or while talking on the phone.
• Active noise cancellation not working as expected, such as a loss of bass sound, or an increase in background sounds, such as street or airplane noise.

It added that Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider would service the affected AirPods Pro (left, right or both), free of charge.

Even though consumers reported these problems soon after the product's release in 2019, and Apple acknowledged the issues, the company continued to sell the headphones regardless of their manufacturing date.

The lawsuit argued that consumers would not have purchased or paid less for AirPods Pro, if they knew about these defects. This constituted false advertising and misleading consumer practices.