Division (23)

BASF was the third company to voluntarily submit evidence on the global arrangements. When BASF submitted its evidence, the Commission already had at its disposal evidence regarding these arrangements submitted by Chinook and by Bioproducts. Irrespective of the value of the evidence submitted by Chinook, Bioproducts’ evidence in itself was clearly sufficient to constitute decisive evidence of the cartel’s existence within the meaning of section B of the 1996 Leniency Notice. Therefore, when BASF made its submissions, it was not the first undertaking to provide decisive evidence of the cartel’s existence to the Commission. As a result, sections B and C of the 1996 Leniency Notice do not apply to BASF, nor to the other two European producers.