Buffalo Wild Wings sued over boneless wings: “false and misleading marketing,” man claims

Buffalo Wild Wings may not use actual wing meat for its boneless chicken wings, but it apparently likes to work with a touch of sarcasm.

The popular fast food chain appeared to turn to Twitter to respond to a class action lawsuit filed by a Chicago man on Friday who claims its boneless chicken wings constitute “false and misleading marketing” because they are not actually a boneless chicken wing.

“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 tweeted Monday.

The plaintiff, Aimen Halim, alleges that Buffalo Wild Wings is deliberately misleading its customers by marketing its boneless wings as wings rather than as glorified chicken nuggets, and says that had he known the products were not actual chicken wings, he either would not have bought them, or would have paid less.

“Unbeknownst to the 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. “In reality, the products are more akin, in composition, to a chicken nugget rather than a chicken wing.”

The suit also includes a photo of a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant menu where the “boneless” wing subcategory appears on a larger “wings” menu that also includes other non-wing options such as “cauliflower.” “Traditional” wings and “tenders” can also be found on the menu.

Halim’s suit refers to a Nebraska man who gave a speech to his city council in 2020 about boneless wings, saying, “Nothing about boneless chicken wings actually comes from a chicken’s wing. We would be disgusted if a butcher mislabeled their cuts of meat . but then we go around pretending the chicken’s breast is its wing.”

The suit alleges that after the speech, Buffalo Wild Wings “refused to change its practices,” and notes that Papa John’s and Domino’s Pizza sell “actual chicken wings.”

In the “About The Wings” section of Buffalo Wild Wings’ online menu, the product is described as “juicy all-white chicken.”