A technical malfunction within Nets’ systems caused widespread disruptions to card payments on Saturday, the company revealed in a press release on Thursday.

The outage, which lasted approximately three hours, impacted various services, including payments at the Great Belt Bridge, the “Musik i Lejet” festival, and the “Grøn Koncert” event. Nets attributed the problem to a “rare component failure” in its underlying infrastructure, managed by a “global partner.”

Allan Bonke, country manager for Nets, explained that a backup system should have automatically activated upon detection of the error, but this failed to occur due to the complexity of the issue. He assured that the company has since analyzed the situation and implemented measures to prevent a recurrence.

The company acknowledged criticism regarding its communication during and after the incident. Bonke stated that Nets is taking the feedback seriously and will review its communication processes to improve responsiveness and transparency in the future. He also mentioned the need to better educate customers about offline payment options.

Sund & Bælt, operator of the Great Belt Bridge, welcomed Nets’ commitment to improving communication. The Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs has requested a report from the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority detailing the cause of the breakdown and Nets’ contingency plans.

Nets is in the process of rolling out a new offline function that will allow the use of international cards or mobile phones during outages, starting with large supermarket chains and pharmacies. Nets, acquired by the Italian payment group Nexi in 2020, holds a significant market share in card payment acquisition in Denmark.