Supreme Court issues judicial interpretation of online judicial auction.
As a new measure to dispose of property in the compulsory execution procedure, online judicial auction plays an important role in solving the "execution difficulty" and timely and effectively fulfilling the rights and interests of creditors. The Supreme People’s Court held a press conference today to issue regulations on several issues concerning online judicial auction of people’s courts, making the auction rules clear and systematic. The regulations will be officially implemented on January 1, 2017.
Court online auctions exceeded 250,000 times and the amount exceeded 150 billion yuan.
According to statistics, the value of the execution property of the national courts is about 600 billion every year, and a considerable part of it should be realized through judicial auction. Compared with the traditional auction mode, online judicial auction is more open, efficient and convenient. More than 1,400 courts across the country have independently conducted online auctions, conducted more than 250,000 online auctions, and successfully disposed of more than 150 billion yuan.
As a new thing, online judicial auction has many problems in practice, such as various auction modes, multiple auction subjects and different operating procedures. In this regard, the "Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues of People’s Courts’ Online Judicial Auction" comprehensively and systematically sorts out and standardizes the platform access rules, operation mode, division of powers and responsibilities among subjects, and specific auction rules, and clearly follows three basic principles, namely, the principle of racquet priority, the principle of full openness, and the principle of market selection.
The main body of implementing online judicial auction is the people’s court, and online judicial auction should be open to the whole society.
The "Regulations" clarify that online judicial auction refers to the behavior of the people’s court to publicly dispose of property by online electronic bidding through the Internet auction platform according to law. The online judicial auction should be open to the whole society on the Internet auction platform and accept social supervision. The Regulations specify that the people’s court shall be the main body of the online judicial auction, and the Supreme People’s Court shall establish a nationwide list of network service providers, and the application executor shall choose the auction platform in specific cases. If an Internet service provider intends to provide an online judicial auction platform, it may apply for inclusion in the list library. The Supreme People’s Court has set up a special evaluation committee to be responsible for the selection, evaluation and delisting of Internet service providers.
It is strictly forbidden for network service providers to operate illegally.
The "Regulations" clearly indicate that there are acts of manipulating auction procedures, modifying auction information or maliciously colluding, practicing fraud, and leaking confidential information, and the Supreme People’s Court has the right to remove them from the list.
The executive court and its staff shall not bid.
In order to ensure the fairness, justice and judicial integrity of the auction, the Regulations clearly stipulate that in addition to the enforcement court and its staff, network service providers, social institutions or organizations undertaking auction assistance and their close relatives are not allowed to participate in the auction.
The court undertakes the responsibilities of issuing public announcements and ascertaining the property status.
The "Regulations" clarify the respective responsibilities of the people’s courts, network service providers and auxiliary work undertakers in online judicial auctions. It is clear that the people’s courts should undertake the basic duties such as issuing announcements, ascertaining the property status, determining the reserve price and deposit, and making auction rulings. In addition to performing their duties strictly according to law, the people’s courts should also be responsible for managing, supervising and guiding the whole auction process. The people’s court may entrust social institutions or organizations with auxiliary work such as making explanations of auction property and displaying lots:
The network service provider shall ensure that the auction information data is true, accurate and complete.
The "Regulations" clarify the main obligations that network service providers need to undertake, such as ensuring the authenticity, accuracy and completeness of auction information data and providing electronic payment docking systems.
It is clear that online judicial auction should be announced in advance.
The "Regulations" clarify that online judicial auctions should be announced in advance, and the auction announcement should be released on the online judicial auction platform in addition to legal channels. Auction of movable property shall be announced fifteen days before the auction; Auction of real estate or other property rights shall be announced 30 days before the auction.
An auction announcement shall include information such as auction property, price, deposit, bidder’s conditions, known defects of auction property, relevant rights and obligations, legal responsibilities, auction time, online platform and auction court.
Clarify the effective principle of one-person bidding
The "Regulations" clarify the principle that one-person auction is effective. The traditional auction theory holds that the auction should be attended by at least two people, but the online judicial auction has the characteristics of whole process, comprehensiveness and whole network openness. Bidders can participate in the auction at any time from the start of the auction to the end of the auction. The possibility of unfair bidding due to insufficient publicity and asymmetric information has been minimized. If the price of one person’s bidding is higher than the starting price, it will be deemed invalid, on the one hand, it will damage the credibility of the judicial auction, on the other hand, the price of the second auction will be reduced after the auction, which is not conducive to the realization of property and the creditor’s rights of the parties. Therefore, the "Regulations" clarify that even if there is only one bidder, as long as the bid is not lower than the starting price, the transaction will be concluded.
The bidding time is not less than 24 hours.
The "Regulations" clarify that the bidding time for online judicial auctions should be no less than 24 hours. If no one bids within five minutes before the end of the bidding procedure, the final bid is the transaction price; If there is a bid, the bidding time will be postponed for five minutes from the bidding time.
The deposit will not be refunded after the buyer regrets the auction.
It is a common practice in judicial or commercial auctions for the participants to pay the deposit. The "Regulations" changed the practice of not paying the deposit for small property in the past, and made it clear that all the deposits should be paid, so as to reduce the probability of regretting the auction. In order to prevent the participation of some potential bidders from being affected by the high threshold, the maximum amount of the deposit should not exceed 20% of the starting price.
With regard to the handling of the deposit after the auction, the judicial auction should ensure its seriousness, and those who regret the auction should bear certain consequences, so the deposit paid by them will not be refunded. After the auction is cancelled, the deposit is used to pay the auction expenses, make up the difference between the re-auction price and the original price, and offset the debts of the executed person in this case, which can also improve the efficiency of execution objectively.
Clarify the revocation situation and responsibility of online judicial auction.
The "Regulations" provide for the circumstances in which the parties and interested parties raise objections and request to cancel the online judicial auction, focusing on the special circumstances in the online auction: first, the auction property display and defect description lead to the buyer’s major misunderstanding, and so on. From another perspective, this clause stipulates that the enforcement court must conduct due diligence and information disclosure on the auction property, otherwise the auction may be cancelled. Second, the auction result is wrong because of network failure, such as system failure, virus invasion, hacker attack and other reasons.
At the same time, the "Regulations" clarify the responsibility and the relief channels of the parties after the auction is cancelled. After the auction is cancelled, if the parties, interested parties and outsiders think that the auction is illegal and their legitimate rights and interests have been damaged, they may apply for state compensation; If it is believed that the lawful rights and interests of other subjects have been damaged due to their illegal actions, another lawsuit may be filed. It is specially stipulated that if the behavior of the online judicial auction service provider is illegal and causes damage, the parties may claim their rights separately.
The implementation of the "Regulations" will make the auction rules clear and systematic. Through the whole process of information disclosure, the rights and responsibilities of each subject will be clarified, the interest chain will be cut off, the power rent-seeking space will be reduced, the judicial integrity will be guaranteed to the greatest extent, and the efficiency of implementation will be comprehensively improved. (CCTV reporter Zhang Sai)