Btw, the same section you quoted also says:
§ 2-328. Sale by Auction.
(3) Such a sale is with reserve unless the goods are in explicit terms put up without reserve. In an auction with reserve the auctioneer may withdraw the goods at any time until he announces completion of the sale.
Irrelevant, since we are discussing a previously unannounced self bid and not a reserve price. Your practice was at best untrustworthy, and if it were a real auction house, illegal.
In a real auction house, completely normal. Being a technical operator of the auction process doesn't add or remove any capability to act as a bidder. Your opinions have no say in this. In any case, nobody was scammed and Vod is spreading bullshit in various ways. How about going back to on-topic and starting to digest that (the abuse done by DT members)?