In this paper we are going to use the term mechanism in a rather informal sense as a set of rules, strategies and procedures. For a more formal use of the
In this paper we describe a type of auction mechanism where the auctioneer A wants to auction an item among a certain number of bidders bi ∈ B (i = 1, . . . , n) that submit bids in the auction with the aim of not getting . Owing to this feature we call this mechanism a negative auction. The main motivation of this mechanism is that both the bidders and the auctioneer give a negative value to the auctioned item (and so they see it as a bad rather than a good). The mechanism is presented in its basic simple version and with some possible extensions that account for the payment of a fee for not at- tending the auction, the interactions among the bidders and the pres- ence of other supporting actors.