Apple Faces Refiled Class Action Over AirPods ‘Audio Defect’

Photo Credit: John M. Smit

Apple misled consumers by concealing AirPods Pro 1 sound issues and then rolling out an “ineffective” service program for the defective product – at least according to a newly refiled class action lawsuit alleging false advertising and more.

Seven sub-class representatives, hailing from Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, and California, just recently doubled down on their claims in a third amended complaint. Besides arriving about 18 months after the courtroom confrontation kicked off, the retooled action follows the April 10th dismissal of multiple claims with prejudice.

In brief, the presiding judge granted Apple’s request to toss claims involving alleged violations of Ohio and Texas law; the appropriate individuals are no longer parties to the complaint. Additionally, the court formally initiated discovery and settled on a late-April cutoff for the allegedly shortchanged consumers to update their remaining allegations.

Enter the suit’s newest iteration, which begins by calling out the AirPods Pro 1’s alleged “audio defect” and resulting “sound issues—including crackling or static sounds, loss of bass sounds, or an increase in background sounds.”

The way the plaintiffs tell the story, they bought the first-gen earbuds (which became available in October 2019 and made way for the second-generation release in September 2022) based on Apple’s purported “representations about sound-quality” as well as the business’s “omission of the truth about the sound issues”

Unsurprisingly, then, the action dedicates quite a bit of text to retreading these alleged representations, which purportedly continued even after the tech giant was aware of the described sound troubles.

“At the same time that Apple represented that its AirPods Pro Gen 1 headphones had high quality sound, Apple never disclosed that the AirPods Pro Gen 1 had a sound defect…except for on an obscure support page that understated the defect, and that had to be actively found through research by consumers,” one section sums up.

Meanwhile, this support page’s corresponding service program understated “the number of affected units” and “gave consumers the run-around” by allegedly facilitating the replacement of “defective headphones with more headphones containing the same” alleged problems, per the document.

Also front and center in the suit: The service program’s covering “headphones manufactured before October 2020” even though units made after the “arbitrary cutoff” are said to have experienced identical sound issues.

Consequently, some buyers were allegedly ineligible for the support program despite claiming to have received defective products.

(How can the plaintiffs profess to know that units made and sold after October 2020 were likewise impacted? Well, an expert-performed “microscopic examination of AirPods Pro Gen 1 sold before and after October 2020 reveals that there are no significant component differences between AirPods Pro Gen 1 before and after October 2020.”)

Finally, Apple allegedly failed to inform customers of the purported issues at the point of purchase and “never pushed out” the service program to “users through their cell phones, website accounts, or other apps,” the plaintiffs maintain.

DMN contacted Apple (which has until May 13th to answer the complaint) for comment but didn’t receive a response in time for publishing. And while it remains to be seen how the case plays out, it’s worth noting in conclusion that the plaintiffs’ legal team, Tycko & Zavareei, previously touted securing a $35 million settlement in an audio-defect class action involving the iPhone 7.