Apple is now facing a class-action lawsuit because of the iPad mini 6’s jelly scrolling

The iPad mini 6 was released back in September last year, and shortly after its official release many users noticed behavior that the LCD screen had, which was dubbed “jelly scrolling”, and related to the display refresh rates. At the time, Apple said that this is not a bug and is expected behavior. However, users remained unhappy and now 9to5Mac reports Apple has been hit with a class-action lawsuit from iPad mini owners.

Class action lawsuit from iPad mini 6 owner claims jelly scrolling makes the iPad unusable

In case you don’t know, jelly scrolling is the situation in which half of the device’s display refreshes noticeably slower than the other half, and that creates a wobble-like effect. This is why this behavior was dubbed Jelly Scrolling. Since the iPad mini 6 was released, many people complained about it, but Apple said it was a normal thing for LCD screens, including the one on the iPad mini.

Now, it seems that some users weren’t happy with this explanation and went on to file a class-action lawsuit against Apple. The lawsuit was filed by Christopher Bryan of Colorado, who claimed that the jelly scrolling effect is a “defect” that makes the display “bends, warps, blurs and obscures text and images”. In consequence, the lawsuit claims the iPad mini is “unusable”.

On top of that, some users have reported experiencing motion sickness, nausea, vomiting, and migraines from the iPad mini due to the jelly scrolling situation. The lawsuit continues on to say that display Apple publicly acknowledged the issue, it has continued to sell the iPad mini without fixing the problem or amending the marketing materials to include a mention of the jelly scrolling issue.

The lawsuit also notes that Apple has insisted this is normal behavior despite other devices with LCD screens not suffering nearly as badly from it, including Apple’s iPad Air. On top of that, the plaintiff also accuses Cupertino of “concealing” the issue as it continues to sell the iPad mini 6.

Plaintiff Bryan claims the jelly scrolling makes the iPad mini 6 unusable

The lawsuit goes on to specify how Apple has marketed the iPad mini 6 without disclosing the jelly scrolling effect: advertising the mini 6 as enabling the consumer to read, play games, and write, which are all things affected by the exhibited behavior. As such, the lawsuit claims Apple has violated California competition law, false advertising law, and it also accuses the tech giant of fraud.

The plaintiff is looking to receive financial relief for anyone who purchased the iPad mini 6 through this lawsuit. As many of you know, this case has still a long way to go before it can proceed, and such class-action lawsuits usually die down before this happens, but we have to wait and see what the fate of this one will be.

Here’s the full document for the lawsuit filing if you want to read it.

iPad mini 6 jelly scrolling

Back in September, it was not long after the iPad mini 6 was released that people started noticing the jelly scrolling effect and considering it a bug, and as we mentioned earlier, Apple released a statement saying it is normal behavior for LCD screens. Not long after that YouTube channel iFixit known for taking devices apart to figure out their repairability. iFixit did the same to the iPad mini 6 and explained why the jelly scrolling was occurring.
It seems it is connected to the placement of the controller board that drives the display. As you know, displays refresh from top to bottom in whatever orientation you are using it (laptop from top to bottom in landscape, iPhone top to bottom in portrait), but it appears the iPad mini 6 is refreshing horizontally (good for landscape, noticeable jelly scrolling on portrait orientation).