The Court of Arbitration at the Polish Chamber of Commerce (the PCC) has been in continuous operation since 1 January 1950, when it was created for the purpose of resolving disputes in international trade. In relations between entities from the former Eastern Bloc, arbitration at the chambers of commerce in the relevant countries was mandatory, as reflected by the Moscow Convention of 1972. Thus, at the beginning the Court acted on the basis of arbitration agreements between the parties (typically Polish entities trading with Western European businesses), but it also had mandatory jurisdiction over cases brought against Polish commercial entities (state-controlled) by commercial entities from other countries that were parties to the Moscow Convention.