The following reference agrees with Zazie and provides background info:

http://www.travelbids.com/WhatIsReverse.htm

"A "reverse" auction is an auction with a twist! With a traditional auction, a limited number of items are put up for sale by sellers, and prospective buyers enter bids. Naturally, the buyers can only enter bids on items that have been put up for sale. This is a major limitation of a traditional auction -- limited items are up for sale. With a "reverse" auction, on the other hand, prospective buyers can list any items that they wish to buy, and then sellers bid to provide the best price. This concept is much more consumer oriented! The consumer decides the exact specifications of each item, instead of the specifications being dictated by the seller. Up until the introduction of the Internet, it was not feasible to conduct a reverse auction. Now, the TravelBids auction has become the first one. The term "reverse auction" was coined by Hal Segal, TravelBids' founder, in 1996."

and this one agrees with the translation:

http://multimedia.hightext.de/k.vip/prartikel1/9374917501088...

Zum Dritten, zum Zweiten, zum Ersten! Reverse Auctions bei Atrada! Herausgeber: Atrada Trading Network AG Datum: 05.10.99 Exponet Zum Dritten, zum Zweiten, zum Ersten! Reverse Auctions bei Atrada (iBOT) Als erste deutsche E-Commerce Site bietet http://www.atrada.de umgekehrte Auktionen: Der Interessent bestimmt einen Höchstpreis, die Anbieter unterbieten sich.

In the future however, we will all have to check our own contexts carefully because a Declining Price Auction with one supplier and many bidders is also sometimes referred to as a Reverse Auction, as you can see at the following site:

http://www.reverseauction.com/jsp/auctions/PostReverseAuctio...

Starting Price $ ________ The Maximum that you will accept for each item.

Remember this is a Declining Price Auction!

Reserve Price $ ________ The Minimum that you will accept for each item.

A reverse auction, also known as "Dutch auction", is an auction in which bidders are invited to offer their lowest prices. See web auction sites like ricardo.de or oferto.de, for instance.