The quotas referred to in Article 1 shall be allocated according to the chronological order of receipt by the Commission of Member States’ notifications of applications from individual operators, for amounts not exceeding the maximum quantities per operator set out in Annex I.The maximum quantities shall not, however, apply to operators able to prove to the competent national authorities, when making their first application for 2012, that, in respect of given categories and given third countries, they imported more than the maximum quantities specified for each category pursuant to import licences granted to them for 2011.In the case of such operators, the competent authorities may authorise imports not exceeding the quantities imported in 2011 from given third countries and in given categories, provided that enough quota capacity is available.