Buffalo Wild Wings is trying to prove that boneless wings aren’t just nuggets

• Buffalo Wild Wings is defending its “boneless wings” in court against misleading marketing claims.
• The plaintiff claims that the wings are made from chicken breast meat and not from chicken wing meat.
• Buffalo Wild Wings claims it’s “common sense” that they’re not actually wings, citing another case.

Buffalo Wild Wings has been fighting in court for over a year to prove that its “boneless wings” aren’t just chicken nuggets. Now, lawyers for the company say an Ohio Supreme Court case has already settled the issue.

Aimen Halim filed a class-action lawsuit against Buffalo Wild Wings in March 2023, claiming in court documents that the chain’s “boneless wings” are actually made from chicken breast, which he said amounts to “misleading marketing.” In court filings, Halim’s lawyers argue that the boneless wings are “more similar in composition to a chicken nugget than a chicken wing.”

Buffalo Wild Wings first filed a motion to dismiss the case in June 2023, to which it added on July 29. In that filing, attorneys for the chain argued that the issues in the case had already been resolved in a previous case by the Ohio Supreme Court. .

Lawyers for Buffalo Wild Wings cited Berkheimer v. REKM LLC, an Ohio lawsuit in which a man sued a restaurant after he “ingested a bone while eating a ‘boneless wing'” made from pre-butterfly chicken breast , boneless and skinless,” according to the data. court documents.

In this case, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in favor of the defendant, finding that restaurants cannot be held liable for foods that consumers should reasonably expect to be included in their meals.

According to court documents, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected Berkheimer’s argument that no consumer could reasonably expect a bone to be inside a boneless wing as “fanciful and implausible.”

“With respect to the food item called “boneless wing,” it is common sense that the label was merely a description of the style of cooking,” the Ohio Supreme Court said in its majority opinion. “A restaurant that reads ‘boneless wings’ on a menu would no more believe that the restaurant warrants the absence of bones in the products than it would believe that the items are made from chicken wings, as a person who eats ‘fingers’ would know chicken” he had not been served fingers”.

Attorneys for Buffalo Wild Wings said in the most recent filing that even the dissent in the Ohio case agreed with the “common sense” conclusion that “boneless wings are not really wings.”

“Berkheimer directly supports the dismissal of plaintiff’s allegations here,” the filing states.

Halim has also filed class action lawsuits against other companies for their products, such as the makers of Tom’s mouthwash, KIND granola, and Hefty recycling bags.

Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, previously told Business Insider that class action cases like Halim’s “rarely, if ever, go to a jury trial” because the judge must first decide that the case is suitable to receive “class” certification. that is, it can represent a group of plaintiffs.

Bill Marler, an attorney who specializes in food safety cases, previously told BI that these types of lawsuits are often legally unproductive and walk the “fine line between advocating for consumers and just being annoying.”

“It begs the question what is the real purpose here? Is it that they are a consumer advocate and then extract fees and costs from the company to discourage them from doing it again? Or is it just a tool to extract taxes and costs out of a company?” Marler told BI.

But Halim’s lawyers are not giving up their fight. On August 5, they responded to the company’s latest filing.

Halim argued that the Ohio case examined “an entirely different legal issue” because the court determined that consumers could expect to find bones in a boneless wing because they are “natural to chicken.”

Halim’s case, his lawyers argue, centers on whether consumers should expect “boneless wings” to contain wing meat or meat from other parts of the chicken.

“It seems to rely on Berkheimer that if it is reasonable to expect a bone in a bony wing, it would be just as reasonable for the bone to be in the bony wing because it was originally a wing,” reads the file.

Buffalo Wild Wings did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit filings.