The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has found Moldova guilty in the cases of “Bimer SA v. Moldova” and “Paladi v. Moldova”, obliging the state to pay the plaintiffs more than 540,000 euros for damages. According to the ECHR judgement, following an agreement signed with the Leuseni Customs office, the Bimer Company opened in 1998 a duty free shop on the customs zone. The contract did not contain any provision as to its duration. In 2002, the Parliament made amendments to the Customs Code by which duty free sales outlets were restricted to international airports and on board aircraft flying international routes. Shortly after that, the Customs Department ordered the closure of all duty free outlets which did not meet the new requirements. In June 2002, the plaintiff, together with other companies similarly affected, initiated a court action against that order, alleging in particular that the new amendments to the Customs Code could not have retroactive effect and could be interpreted only as limiting the opening of duty free shops in the future, and not as closing down those already open. The Court of Appeals of Moldova ruled in favour of the company, but the Supreme Court quashed the previous judgement and declared the Customs Department’s order as legal. ECHR found that there has been violation of article 1 of Protocol No.1 to the European Convention (protection of property), and ordered the Moldovan Government to pay the company EUR 520,000 in respect of pecuniary damage. In the case of ex-deputy-mayor Ion Paladi, the applicant alleged that he had not been given proper medical assistance, and that he had been detained without a lawful basis and in the absence of a reasonable suspicion that he had committed a crime. The Court found that there have been violations of a number of articles of the Convention, and obliged the State to pay the plaintiff EUR 21,080 for damages, costs and expenses. To date, the Moldovan Government has lost more than 60 cases in Strasbourg, and the sum of damages that the state has been obliged to pay amounts to about 1.3 million euros, or over 20 million lei.