This article examines the issue of determining the nature of the legal relationships that arise in the course of the destruction of property seized from an individual for being involved in illicit trade, as well as the costs incurred by the Federal Service for Alcohol, Tobacco and Drug Control in connection with the storage and destruction of such products. An analysis of judicial practice has shown that civil law mechanisms for the compensation of damages are applied to these legal relationships. In this article, the author endeavours to demonstrate the fallacy of this approach by substantiating the existence of a public-law basis in the aforementioned legal relationships.