On 21 October 1999 the European Commission gave the go-ahead to Ecomet, a grouping of European national meteorological institutes set up for the joint sale of meteorological products. The commercial activities of the national meteorological institutes are focused on final users of meteorological services, intermediaries such as independent service providers who need the meteorological data gathered by the national meteorological institutes to create their own meteorological products, and the media. The Commission has satisfied itself that there is still adequate competition between the Ecomet members, particularly on prices, since their commercial divisions compete with each other, and that the grouping operates in such a way as to permit fair competition with independent service providers.