China’s central bank has fined the country's leading third-party online payment platform Alipay around 180,000 yuan (28,500 US dollars) for deficiencies in marketing and protecting consumer's rights.

According to the statement released by the People's Bank of China's Hangzhou branch on its website, Alipay was found violating the rules in three main aspects.

Firstly, Alipay didn’t fulfill its duty to guarantee consumers’ rights to know and rights to choose what data will be collected and how their data will be used.

Also, Alipay was found guilty in its marketing, including delivering misleading information in video advertisements and posting misleading promotions on its official Weibo account.

Alipay has also failed to meet the principle of gathering the minimal and indispensable user information and accused of improper use of users’ data.

Alipay responded to the fine on Sunday, saying that they had immediately launched an improvement plan. So far, various improving measures have been put in place and accepted by authorities, reported China News Service.

This is not the first time Alipay has been fined. In May 2017, the People's Bank of China's Shanghai branch announced in a publication of administrative punishments that Alipay was fined 30,000 yuan (4,700 US dollars) for violating payment regulations. According to 2018’s third and fourth issue of China Forex journal, Alipay was fined 600,000 yuan (95,700 US dollars) for violating rules of cross-border payment services.