That advance assessment is carried out in two stages. As a first step, the PIU of the Member State concerned, pursuant to Article 6(3) of the PNR Directive, processes PNR data by automated means by comparing them against databases or pre-determined criteria. As a second step, should that processing by automated means lead to a positive match (‘hit’), that unit, pursuant to Article 6(5) of the said directive, is to carry out an individual review by non-automated means to verify whether the competent authorities referred to in Article 7 of the said directive need to take action under national law (‘match’).