Apple CEO Tim Cook Departs The Stage Following His Keynote Address
Apple CEO Tim Cook departs the stage following his keynote address at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, June 2, 2014. Reuters

Apple has catered to a growing and steady fan base of MacBook users. However, the recent problems arising from the units including graphics failure has got some Apple fans suing the company. What is Apple up against this time?

According to users who purchased Macbooks in 2011, the units come with defective graphic cards. This has lead to widespread disappointment against Apple and a class-action suit. Business Insider notes that the customers want Apple to replace or repair the malfunctioning notebooks. Likewise, the petitioners of the lawsuit are asking Apple to settle punitive damages along with the legal fees.

The affected models include the 2011 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro units. According to MacRunors, people have to replace the graphics with more expensive logic boards - some even resorting to it multiple times. The prevalent nature of the problem has prompted people to believe that it was a manufacturing issue. Therefore, Apple needed to cover the damages. People took to the website change.org their grievances. The petition has not gathered more than 20,000 signatures. The affected customer group has also started organizing a Facebook group with more than 5,000 members now.

In another report by MacRumors, the site noted that Whitfield Bryson & Mason LLP, a law firm, has started looking into the matter. The research also sought to find out if people can really file a class-action suit against the company. The firm noted that there are sufficient reasons for customers to sue Apple and ask for settlement of damages. According to the firm: "Our firm recently filed a class-action lawsuit in a California federal court against Apple, Inc. on behalf of residents in the States of California and Florida who purchased 2011 MacBook Pro Laptops with AMD GPUs who experienced graphical distortions and system failures."

The firm is still gathering feedback with some groups thinking of filing lawsuits against Apple in a variety of jurisdictions.