2. The system of traceability shall consist of the collection and storage of data by electronic means enabling the identification of the product and of the economic operators involved in its supply chain as well as of the placement of a data carrier on the product, its packaging or accompanying documents enabling access to that data.

The merged company would also lack the ability to deny operators of TV-channels access to customers, because of the merged company's limited share of demand for TV-content and the presence of strong competitors operating other TV-platforms.

Such operators will receive “secure operator” status from national authorities for a period of three years which is renewable; Allows a nationally awarded “secure operator” EU-wide recognition; Facilitates the creation of secure supply chains consisting of “secure operators”; Enables a “secure operator” to enjoy fast track treatment at security checks both inside the EU (e.g. ports) and at external borders where customs are implementing new security rules; Encourages “secure operators” to positively distinguish themselves from non-secure competitors in the transport market.

in the pursuit of its mission to ‘ensure the safety of the food chain and the quality of foods with a view to protecting human, animal and plant health’, the AFSCA is acting not as a private operator but as a public authority and that, consequently, it is not in receipt of State aid; there is no economic bias in favour of economic operators covered by Agency activities financed by fees and that, consequently, they are not in receipt of aid; as regards the financing of general random checks by fixed contributions, the operators recei ...[+++]ve no specific economic advantage and, consequently, no aid, given the compulsory nature of the checks and the fact that they cannot be invoiced directly to an individual company as they aim to ensure that the entire food chain is monitored (they benefit all operators and aim to protect health and food safety in Belgium); using contributions to finance part of the cost of BSE tests and other checks linked directly to the production and placing on the market of certain products is a form of State aid which complies with the Guidelines on State aids linked to BSE tests; the actual financing mechanism contains no specific provisions which would be contrary to other provisions of the Treaty, and the parameters for distributing the sum of contributions among operators in the various sectors are objective and fair criteria which do not lead to discriminatory treatment as regards the origin of the products.

After all, with the common market for supply chain operators a reality, every national authority will be confronted with operators having been granted “secure operator” status in another Member State expecting to be allowed to avail themselves of facilitations granted to national operators.

I think we could do well on the international stage, and the international stage may do well here, yet this protectionist approach through licensing in order to ensure that all the incumbent players have a captive market potentially could be detrimental to the end consumer.