It’s the debate of the year: Are boneless chicken wings actual wings, or just well-marketed chicken nuggets?
A Chicago man is suing sports bar chain Buffalo Wild Wings for its claims about boneless wings, according to the class action lawsuit. The suit, filed in the United States District Court Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division on March 10, addresses the restaurant’s alleged “false and deceptive marketing.”
Plaintiff Aimen Halim says the product’s name Boneless Wings is misleading.
Buffalo Wild Wings’ boneless offerings are made with meat from chicken breast, rather than from the wing. The class action suit references a January 2023 visit to a Buffalo Wild Wings location in Mount Prospect, Ill.
“Unbeknownst to Plaintiff and other consumers, the products are not wings at all, but instead, slices of chicken breast meat deep-fried like wings. Indeed, the products are more akin, in composition, to a chicken nugget rather than a chicken wing,” the document states.
If he had been aware prior to ordering that the product wasn’t a chicken wing (per his definition), it would have affected his purchasing decision. The text of the lawsuit states that Halim “suffered financial injury” from this misconception.
Buffalo Wild Wings was quick to address the controversy through a series of cheeky tweets:
It’s true.
Our boneless wings are all white meat chicken.
Our hamburgers contain no ham.
Our buffalo wings are 0% buffalo.— Buffalo Wild Wings (@BWWings) March 13, 2023
“It’s true. Our boneless wings are all white meat chicken. Our hamburgers contain no ham. Our buffalo wings are 0% buffalo,” the brand posted on March 13.
This isn’t the first time that Halim has pursued a consumer class action lawsuit. In late December 2022, the Illinois resident initiated a similar suit against the company that creates Kind Bars. He asserted that the granola bars didn’t contain a sufficient amount of fiber in accordance with its packaging claims.
This latest suit begs the question: What’s the legal definition of a chicken wing?