The Great Boneless Wings Debate Ends in Court

A judge has legally ruled on the age-old question of “is boneless wings really just chicken nuggets?”

Yes, with all the crime and violence in this country, a judge had to take time out of their day to evaluate if customers of Buffalo Wild Wings deserved a payout for labeling their chicken as ‘boneless.’

Aimen Halim filed a complaint in Chicago in March of 2023 alleging that Buffalo Wild Wings violated the law protecting consumers from deceptive business practices. He claimed BWW “boneless chicken wings” was misleading customers into thinking they were ordering deboned chicken wings. Halim said had he’d known that they were more like chicken nuggets than wings, he wouldn’t have purchased the chicken. He was asking for a compensation in damages on behalf of customers, as he sustained ‘financial injury.’

This week, the time had finally come for a judge to evaluate if the complaint was valid. He even gave the plaintiff additional time to come up with more supporting facts. However, it was a pretty quick call that this lawsuit had no meat on its bones, literally.

Judge John Tharp Jr. threw out the case saying, “A reasonable customer would not think that BBW’s boneless wings were truly deboned chicken wings, reconstituted into some sort of Franken-wing,” He added in the filing, “Despite his best efforts, Halim did not ‘drum’ up enough factual allegations to state a claim.”

So while the debate over what counts as a “wing” may rage online, in the courtroom, this one’s been picked clean.