It’s a sweet victory for Buffalo Wild Wings.
After a court case against the food chain ended up having no meat on its bones, BWW has decided to celebrate its win with what it does best.
The restaurant is encouraging customers to toast its victory with chicken by offering one-day-only BOGO deals on the chain’s signature boneless wings.
Thursday’s celebration comes after a judge decided that boneless chicken wings do not actually have to come from the wing of a chicken, despite the name.
‘Head to your local B-Dubs for a taste of sweet victory,’ the chain boasted in its BOGO announcement.
While some customers celebrated the triumph, others took to social media, claiming the ‘boneless chicken wing’ name is fowl play.
‘There’s no such thing as boneless wings. Its [sic] a chicken nugget tossed in sauce,’ one X user stated.
‘The judge said the plaintiff didn’t drum up a good argument,’ another X user joked. ‘He was legally winging it.’
A Buffalo Wild Wings customer from Illinois has a bone to pick with the casual dining chain
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Should fast food chains be allowed to use creative names for dishes that aren’t what they seem?
The promotion comes on the heels of Aimen Halim’s class-action lawsuit against the fast-food chain.
Halim, 39, sued the company in 2023 for leading him to believe that his boneless chicken wings did indeed come from the wing of a chicken. He also demanded $10 million in damages.
Judge John Tharp Jr of Illinois’ Northern District crushed Halim’s argument.
‘A reasonable consumer would not think that BWW’s boneless wings were truly deboned chicken wings, reconstituted into some sort of Franken-wing,’ Tharp said.
Tharp ruled that Georgia-based Buffalo Wild Wings is well within its rights to continue serving boneless wings, even though the delicacy is essentially just a chicken nugget.
Halim’s argument was that he wouldn’t have purchased the dish had he known it was not actually made from chicken wings, causing him financial harm.
He claimed in a 10-page opinion that the company violated Illinois’ Consumer Fraud Act and was unfairly enriching itself.
The customer wanted Tharp to rule that Buffalo Wild Wings must change the name of its wings to something like ‘chicken poppers,’ but the judge didn’t bite.
The customer sued Buffalo Wild Wings in 2023 for leading him to believe that his boneless chicken wings did indeed come from the wing of a chicken
‘Words can have multiple meanings,’ Tharp said in the ten-page opinion.
Online, Buffalo Wild Wings describes its boneless wings as ‘juicy all-white chicken, lightly breaded, handspun in a choice of sauce or dry rub.’
The restaurant also offers bone-in wings and cauliflower wings, which are obviously not made from the wings of cauliflowers.
Buffalo Wild Wings argued that Halim didn’t prove he sustained a concrete injury by consuming the boneless wings.
Tharp said Halim had until next month to amend his lawsuit. Though the judge added: ‘It is difficult to imagine that Halim can provide additional facts about his experience that would demonstrate that BWW is committing a deceptive act by calling its nuggets “boneless wings.”‘
Halim sued the restaurant chain months after chowing down on the ‘wings’ – and it is not the first time he has taken legal action against big brands.
The plaintiff previously sued the makers of Hefty recycling bags and KIND granola over deceptive wording and lost in court.
