The Short Version
The U.S. Wagyu market does have well-documented labeling gaps that enable widespread misleading marketing. USDA retail rules allow beef with limited Wagyu genetics to carry the "Wagyu" label, and restaurants face no federal labeling requirements — conditions that industry bodies and the new USDA "Authentic Wagyu®" certification were created to address. However, the claim's language overstates the case: "deceptive" and "exploit consumer ignorance" imply deliberate intent across the market, which the evidence does not uniformly establish.