In 1996, Kavouras was trying to renew an existing contract for weather data with one of its customers in Germany, the SAT1 television network. SAT1 had Kavouras equipment that it used to produce its daily weather shows. In addition to the physical equipment located at SAT1, Kavouras also supplied a satellite delivered data stream, which contains weather data used by the equipment. Satellite data, weather maps and charts, forecasts, and weather observations are among the kinds of information supplied via this satellite link , all of which are collected by Kavouras in the United States, and transmitted to customers in Europe, Asia, and North America.

One of SAT1's new requirements in 1996 was for extensive meteorological observations above and beyond what was available for international exchange (GTS), and thus available to Kavouras in the United States. Kavouras spoke with several ECOMET members about the availability and cost of such data. The logical choice for a source of this data was DWD, the German Weather Service. However, they were completely unresponsive to all requests, verbal and written, for cost and availability of this data. Another country would only make the data available an hour or more after the observations were taken, making the data virtually useless.

Finally, Kavouras did find a source of timely data, whose cost was very expensive (approximately $10000 USD/month), but sanctioned by the ECOMET pricing policy. When we went back to SAT1, we were informed that our competitor was none other than DWD. Furthermore, DWD told SAT1 that they knew what Kavouras's price for this data was (since they set the ECOMET price), and they guaranteed SAT1 that they would undercut Kavouras's cost, no matter what Kavouras charged. Not surprisingly, SAT1 took the best financial deal, and Kavouras lost the business.

Kavouras had similar experiences in Germany and France, selling against the national meteorological service, which assures potential customers that it will undercut whatever price for data, is proposed. These kinds of anti-competitive practices (using their monopoly position to fix artificially high prices, and then using their knowledge of those prices to undercut competitive bids) have forced Kavouras out of the European market.