Buffalo Wild Wings Responds to Boneless Wings Lawsuit, "It's True"

By Adam Barnhardt

Days after a man sued Buffalo Wild Wings for not using actual chicken wing meat in its boneless buffalo wings, the restaurant admitted to some of the man's claims. Wednesday, the national chain shared a now-viral tweet indirectly addressing the ongoing lawsuit.

"It's true," the tweet reads. "Our boneless wings are all white meat chicken. Our hamburgers contain no ham. Our buffalo wings are 0% buffalo."

Why is Buffalo Wild Wings being sued?

Earlier this month, a class action lawsuit was filed in the US District Court in the Northern District of Illinois, claiming the chain was using "false and deceptive marketing and advertising." According to plaintiff Aimen Halim, it's misleading the chain's "boneless wings" are not actually deboned wing meat but rather, chicken breast meat."

"The name and description of the Products (i.e., as "Boneless Wings") leads reasonable consumers to believe the Products are actually chicken wings," the suit reads in its first pages. "In other words, that the Products are chicken wings that have simply been deboned, and as such, are comprised of entirely chicken wing meat...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 suit also adds that "Had Plaintiff and other consumers known that the Products are not actually chicken wings, they would have paid less for them, or would not have purchased them at all," later adding that the plaintiff "suffered a financial injury as a result of Defendants' false and deceptive conduct" after eating "Boneless Wings" at a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in January of this year.

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The suit then goes on to point out some competitors, such as Dominos and Papa John's, use different language that avoids claiming their boneless chicken products are "boneless wings." 

Both Buffalo Wild Wings and its parent company Inspired Brands are named in the lawsuit. Inspire also owns and operates Arby's Baskin-Robbins, Dunkin' Donuts, Jimmy John's, and Sonic Drive-In's. In total, the brand has around 32,000 locations around the world.

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