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U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San
Francisco said the plaintiffs, Uriel Marcus and Benedict
Verceles, failed to show that Apple made "affirmative
misrepresentations," despite citing online complaints and Apple
marketing statements calling the laptops "state of the art" or
the "most advanced" on the market.
"Plaintiffs have failed to allege that Apple's logic boards were
unfit for their ordinary purposes or lacked a minimal level of
quality," Alsup wrote. "Both plaintiffs were able to adequately
use their computers for approximately 18 months and two years,
respectively."
Alsup gave the plaintiffs until Jan. 22 to amend their lawsuit,
which sought class-action status, against the Cupertino,
California-based company.
Omar Rosales, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, did not immediately
respond to requests for comment. Apple did not immediately
respond to a similar request.
The plaintiffs claimed that Apple's sale of MacBooks since May
20, 2010, violated consumer protection laws in California and
Texas, where the lawsuit began last May before being moved.
They also contended that Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook was told
about the defective logic boards in 2011, but did nothing.
Logic boards contain computer circuitry and are sometimes known
as motherboards.
A separate and still pending lawsuit in California accuses Apple
of defrauding consumers by selling MacBook Pro laptops in 2011
that contained defective graphic cards, causing screen
distortions and system failures.
MacBooks are part of Apple's Mac line of desktop and laptop
computers. The company reported unit sales in that business of
18.91 million in its latest fiscal year.
The case is Marcus et al v. Apple Inc, U.S. District Court,
Northern District of California, No. 14-03824.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York. Editing by Andre
Grenon)
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