A technical error at Nets, a major payment provider, caused widespread disruption across the country on Saturday evening, leaving restaurants and festival grounds in disarray as card payments became impossible. Customers were forced to seek alternative payment methods during the outage, which lasted for over two hours.

MobilePay, a payment platform, reported a significant surge in activity following the Nets breakdown. According to Mads Allingstrup, MobilePay’s Danish communications manager, the increase in activity was so substantial that the platform itself experienced a brief outage.

The company quickly intervened to increase capacity, restoring the service within minutes. MobilePay primarily relies on bank transfers rather than direct card transactions, which allowed it to remain functional during the Nets disruption.

MobilePay uses card information to identify the associated bank account and then transfers funds directly between accounts. This bypasses the Nets system, enabling transactions to proceed even when the payment provider is offline.

While the majority of MobilePay transactions are processed via bank transfers, certain transactions, such as those involving foreign cards or online purchases, may still rely on card payments and could have been affected by the Nets outage.

Sund & Bælt, the operator of the Great Belt Bridge, confirmed that MobilePay was available for use during the Nets breakdown, although the high volume of tourist traffic caused delays. Nets has declined to comment on the cause of the technical failure.