For the auto industry that's absolutely not true, I can't speak for other industries, JD Power's data is based on surveys taken by the manufacturer not by JDP themselves. Manufacturers, including the one I currently work for, cherry pick the data they pass on but it has to be based on actual data, this has been going on for decades in the auto industry and probably will for decades to come. As a consumer, I've never put any stock in JDP awards as a  result. No matter what you think of CR, the data is far more accurate and reliable due to the fact they buy their vehicles at retail and run the tests themselves and keep them in their fleets for at least a year on top of the data collected from CR surveys.