The applicant companies have their head offices in Italy, where they own land and buildings. Relying on Article 7 (no punishment without law) and on Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of property), they complained that their property had been illegally confiscated. One applicant, Sud Fondi Srl, was the owner of land on the coast of Italy which was planned to be urbanized – to have houses, offices and shops built on it. It was claimed that at the moment of the approval of the housing development projects in question, no general town planning of the location was in force. In fact, it was alleged that the plan had expired by the time of the adoption of the projects, so that the documents did not coincide with the marked red zones on the plan.

The Court held unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 7 and of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1, as the confiscation had been illegal and unjustified, and awarded each of the applicant companies EUR 10,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage and EUR 30,000 for costs and expenses.