6.1 Introduction

6.1. During the past two decades, advances in digital technology have allowed for tremendous growth in the use of online auctions through digital platforms. Despite this growth, courts in most traditional maritime states, with the notable exception of China, have failed to specify whether a ship could be sold online through an auction conducted on a third-party digital platform. This silence leaves creditors, debtors and platform owners unsure about whether online judicial sales of ships would confer “clean title” to the purchaser. Interestingly, since 2016, the Chinese courts have embarked on auctioning ships through a third-party digital platform called Taobao.2 While no comprehensive empirical evidence exists detailing the percentage of online judicial sales of ships in China, experts in the field assert that most auctions are held on Taobao.3 However, practitioners have raised concerns about the court’s lack of “control and administration” on such online sales.4