A U.S. judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a customer against the American restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings after they learned its boneless wings weren’t actually made from the wing of a chicken.
John Tharp, an Illinois district judge, ruled that Buffalo Wild Wings will continue to be allowed to use the term “boneless wings” on its menu despite the product essentially being chicken nuggets.
The lawsuit alleged that the chain misled customers with the description.
The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by a Chicago man in March 2023 over false advertising and “deceptive” business practices, alleging that he was duped into buying “boneless wings” that aren’t just boneless, but wingless as well.
Aimen Halim claimed he visited a Buffalo Wild Wings location in Mount Prospect, Ill., in January 2023 and purchased the dish, believing it was deboned chicken wings.
Split screen image of a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant and photo of boneless chicken wings.
Getty Images/Global News
“Unbeknownst to Plaintiff and other consumers, the Products are not wings at all, but instead, slices of chicken breast meat deep-fried like wings,” the lawsuit said. “Indeed, the products are more akin, in composition, to a chicken nugget rather than a chicken wing.”
Halim was seeking $10 million in damages.
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“Halim does not plausibly allege that reasonable consumers are deceived by boneless wings, so he has failed to state a plausible claim for relief,” the judge wrote, as reported by The Guardian.
Tharp wrote that boneless wings are “not a niche product for which a consumer would need to do extensive research to figure out the truth.”
The judge acknowledged that Halim had “standing to bring the claim because he plausibly alleged economic injury,” but found that he did not “plausibly allege that reasonable consumers are fooled by Buffalo Wild Wings’ use of the term ‘boneless wings.’”
Buffalo Wild Wings argued in the lawsuit that a reasonable customer would not be misled by the term “boneless wings,” because context shows that chicken nuggets are not made from wing meat.
Tharp also noted that “words can have multiple meanings.”
“Indeed, the term ‘buffalo wing’ refers to the type of sauce on the wing, rather than indicating it is made of buffalo meat,” he wrote.
“A reasonable consumer would not think that BWW’s boneless wings were truly deboned chicken wings, reconstituted into some sort of Franken-wing,” Tharp added.
When Buffalo Wild Wings was asked to comment on the lawsuit after it was first filed, the popular chain cheekily posted to X (then Twitter).
“It’s true,” the post reads. “Our boneless wings are all white meat chicken. Our hamburgers contain no ham. Our buffalo wings are 0 per cent buffalo.”
Halim also argued in the suit that other restaurants had moved away from using the word “wings” to describe their boneless products.
For instance, Domino’s calls a similar product “boneless chicken,” and Papa John’s uses the name “chicken poppers.”
In September 2020, a Nebraska man broached the topic at his local city council meeting in Lincoln.
“I propose that we as a city remove the name ‘boneless wings’ from our menus and from our hearts,” said Ander Christensen in the impassioned speech. “We’ve been living a lie for far too long.”
In 2024, the Associated Press published a story calling boneless wings a “culinary lie,” similar to imitation crab meat, which is actually fish, and to baby carrots, which are full-sized carrots cut down to their smaller, rounded shape.
The news organization asked Americans “at a smattering of wing joints” if they were aware that boneless wings are made of white meat chicken breast and “a healthy amount” of those polled did not know.
In Tuesday’s order, Tharp gave Halim until 20 March to amend his complaint.
— With files from Global News
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