Qiana Pekar
The verdict is in: ‘Chicken wings’ don’t actually have to be chicken wings.
Aimen Halim, a Buffalo Wild Wings customer from Illinois, has a bone to pick with the casual dining chain.
Halim, 39, sued the fast-food chain 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.
On Thursday, 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 wasn’t 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.
‘Words can have multiple meanings,’ Tharp said in the 10-page opinion.
Online, Buffalo Wild Wings describes its Boneless Wings as ‘juicy all-white chicken, lightly breaded, handspun in 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’s 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.
Source: Dailymail.co.uk | Read the Full Story…
