According to a new class-action lawsuit, ‘boneless,’ breaded chicken wings from Buffalo Wild Wings aren’t what they appear to be.
In the lawsuit, Aimen Halim, a Chicago resident is accusing the chain of “false and deceptive marketing and advertising” after he purchased supposedly boneless wings from a restaurant location in Mount Prospect, Illinois in January 2023. Halim explained that he believed he would receive actual chicken wings that had been deboned.
A Chicago-area man is suing Buffalo Wild Wings, claiming that the restaurant chain is falsely advertising its boneless wing products, which he says are more like chicken nuggets.https://t.co/85h8DOKMdJ
— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 14, 2023
“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 states. The chain hilariously tweeted on March 13th, acknowledging the suit, “It’s true. Our boneless wings are all white meat chicken. Our hamburgers contain no ham. Our buffalo wings are 0% buffalo.”
READ MORE: The One Thing You Should Never Order From Buffalo Wild Wings, According To An Employee
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
Buffalo Wild Wings’ Boneless Wings Deemed ‘False And Deceptive’ In New Lawsuit
The suit also said, as reported by Eat This, Not That, that if Halim and other “similarly situated” consumers knew these products were not actually chicken wings, they would have “paid less for them, or would not have purchased them” at all. “Therefore, Plaintiff and consumers have suffered injury in fact, as a result of Defendants’ deceptive practices,” it added.
Halim is seeking damages for himself, and on behalf of other consumers, reprimanded Buffalo Wild Wings for not being more “careful” with how it names its products. The lawsuit also suggested that the chain’s customers are willing to pay more for wings that are advertised as ‘boneless’ because they believe that they are actual wings.
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“Plaintiff’s and other consumers’ reasonable belief that the Products are chicken wings was a significant factor, and therefore material, in each of their decisions to purchase the Products,” the suit said. “Chicken wings are a more premium and desirable product than a Product made of chicken breast meat.”
Can a “boneless chicken wing” truly be called a wing? That’s the question posed by a new class-action lawsuit against Buffalo Wild Wings. https://t.co/8f2cwEqTZW
— NPR (@NPR) March 19, 2023
Are ‘Boneless’ Chicken Wings Really Boneless…Or Wings At All?
Buffalo Wild Wings describes the boneless wings as “juicy all-white chicken” on its website. The menu item is solely composed of white meat from chicken breasts and they aren’t really wings, as NPR reports.
Halim isn’t the only customer to call out the chain for this in recent years, either. In 2020, a man who resided in Lincoln, Nebraska urged the city to completely remove the name “boneless wings” from local menus, according to the Associated Press.
A Chicago man has filed a class action lawsuit against Buffalo Wild Wings accusing the restaurant of deceptive marketing over their “boneless wings” https://t.co/oqyueU4rAl pic.twitter.com/mqHHitNTCV
— CNN (@CNN) March 17, 2023
Actor and comedian Jimmy O. Yang also notably wrote an article about how much he disliked the popular food item for Bon Appétit in 2018, suggesting that “any restaurant who serves boneless wings should be indicted for fraud.”
