Apple officially released the first generation AirPods Pro in the year 2019 and after a few days of its sales, buyers started raising concerns about crackling, rattling, popping, and static-like noises affecting AirPods Pro. This problem was reported to occur when the earbuds moved or vibrated.
Apple considered this issue and rolled out a software update to resolve this problem but the issue remained the same which led the company to start an AirPods Pro repair program in 2020. In this program, the users facing the issue were asked to bring their earbuds for repair or replacement, but later the user reported that the replaced earbuds also had the same issue.
This resulted in a lawsuit filed against the company. The proposed class action lawsuit alleges that Apple has falsely advertised the supposedly superior-sounding AirPods Pro Gen 1, which suffers from known audio defects that can cause the headphones to exhibit crackling or static sounds, a loss of bass sounds, or an increase in background noise.
This 51-page lawsuit against Apple also mentions that the sound is problematic enough that Apple has a dedicated page on its website that mentions AirPods Pro sound issues, specifically for devices manufactured before October 2020. However, it is claimed that the apparent audio defects affect all AirPods Pro Gen 1 headphones, regardless of their manufacture dates.
It is said that even after acknowledging the issue, Apple continued to sell the headphones for hundreds of dollars a pair until September 2022. According to the class action suit, reasonable consumers would not have bought the Apple AirPods Pro Gen 1 or would have paid less, had they known that the company’s claims as to device audio functionality and quality were false and misleading.
