Urgent need for reforming Taobao’s judicial sales; The land use rights for a piece of national land in Kunshan has gone up for a starting price of 325 million yuan (US$52 million)
June 9, 2014 Leave a comment
Urgent need for reforming Taobao’s judicial sales
Staff Reporter
2014-06-03
On May 23, the most expensive item on Taobao — Alibaba’s biggest website for online shopping — made its debut. The land use rights for a piece of national land in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, has gone up for a starting price of 325 million yuan (US$52 million).
The auction was a judicial sale commissioned by the Intermediate People’ Court of Nanajing, but due to its exorbitant price, it failed to find a buyer during the first round of the auction.
According to the Time Weekly, judicial sales can be traced to a meeting between Zhejiang Provincial High Court president Qi Qi and Alibaba Group’s head Jack Ma in 2012.
In July that year, courts in Zhejiang province posted the sales of two vehicles for auction on Taobao on a trial basis, with the deals going smoothly.
Judicial sales had then quickly spread to other provinces, including Jiangsu, Henan and Fujian provinces.
“Starting in 2004, the implementation of property auctions involved in criminal disputes were also carried out through Taobao,” a source from Jiangsu province stated.
However, the owner of an auction house pointed out the flaws of such sales.
He noted that there were many interested parties, but few bidders, adding that those who visited Taobao are mostly 20 to 35 years old, and their purpose is to buy cheap and practical daily goods, but bidders for judicial sales are usually over 40 years old and well established in society.
The second problem is the zero commission for Taobao, which actually places an extra burden on the government’s finances, because the government has to employ extra manpower to do things, such as verify an auctioned item, advertise for it and ensure its delivery.
Also, judicial sales are often handled by an individual judge at court. This procedure lacks the screening of third parties and leaves room for judicial corruption.
Due to the criticism surrounding the chaotic state of judicial sales, 13 provinces and cities have embarked on reforming the auction of items related to litigation for Taobao.
About bambooinnovator
Bamboo Innovator 