Couples married in Copenhagen entitled to refund for wedding fee

Around 12.000 couples, many of them internationals, are entitled to a refund from the city of Copenhagen after the municipality wrongly charged them a fee to get married.

Copenhagen municipality wrongly charged marriage fee

According to a report by Danish newspaper Politiken, the city of Copenhagen illegally charged around 12.000 couples a fee of 1.500 Danish crowns (200 euros) to get married at the capital’s city hall.

The city began charging couples to get married in the city hall in 2018. But an investigation earlier this year found that couples can only be charged for getting married in front of the city hall, which costs the municipality more money.

In comparison to Germany, getting married in Denmark is relatively bureaucracy-free, making Copenhagen a popular destination for international couples in Europe to tie the knot. As a result, it is primarily couples without citizenship or residence permits from Denmark who were wrongly charged.

A record-breaking 8.000 marriages took place at Copenhagen city hall in 2024, 5.000 of which involved couples without Danish citizenship or residence permits.

Copenhagen will refund couples total of 23 million crowns

As a result of the error, the city of Copenhagen will refund affected couples to the tune of 23 million crowns (3 million euros).

Copenhagen Culture Mayor Mia Nyegaard called the error “unlucky and regrettable" in a press release and admitted that scraping together the funds would be a challenge for the municipality.

It is yet unclear how the refund will be paid out, and the municipality has assigned a committee to decide how to proceed.