Asia Tech Wire (July 25) -- A South Korean regulator has fined Chinese cross-border e-commerce platform AliExpress about 1.98 billion won ($1.43 million) for violating data privacy laws.

South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) said Thursday that the agency made the decision at a plenary meeting held the day before.

The PIPC said that according to the investigation, without notifying Korean users, AliExpress provided their personal information to its registered sellers for shipping ordered products.

The move resulted in more than 180,000 overseas sellers on AliExpress, mainly Chinese, receiving personal information from Korean consumers.

This is the first time a foreign e-commerce company has faced a fine for violating regulations related to South Korea's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), and the first time that the PIPC has imposed a fine for the illegal transfer of personal information overseas.

In response to the penalty, AliExpress said it will still actively listen to the PIPC's advice in the future and do its best to provide the best service to Korean users.

AliExpress, which is part of Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group, officially entered the Korean market in 2018.

Alibaba announced in March that it would invest $1.1 billion in the Korean market over the next three years, aiming to expand its e-commerce footprint in the Asian country.

According to Korean market tracker WiseApp, AliExpress had about 8.3 million users in South Korea in May, higher than its Chinese counterpart Temu's about 7.97 million.