Rejsekort's 'RIP physical card' campaign hid the alternative — Denmark went to police

When Denmark's physical travel card was being discontinued, Rejsekort & Rejseplan ran a campaign everywhere commuters look: social media, station billboards, bus and train information screens, and physical covers over the check-in stands. 'Your physical card is closing – Download the Rejsekort app.' 'Have you said goodbye to your Rejsekort? Switch to the app.' 'RIP physical Rejsekort.' The stand covers, from October 2025, said: 'Travel digitally. The physical travel card is closing. Use one of these ticket apps instead.'

What the campaign did not clearly say was that a non-digital alternative to the ticket apps would remain. Where the alternative was mentioned at all — in some Facebook posts — it was visible only after clicking 'see more'. The Ombudsman received more than 35 consumer complaints: the campaign gave people the impression that using an app was mandatory to travel by public transport in future, and the covered check-in stands signalled at the gate itself that physical cards no longer worked.

On 2 June 2026 the Ombudsman reported Rejsekort & Rejseplan to the police for misleading marketing under sections 5(1) and 6(1) of the Marketing Practices Act. Torben Jensen called it a clear case of giving some information while omitting essential information to steer behaviour — and counted it as aggravating that the campaign was so extensive and that public transport is something people cannot simply opt out of. The company told the Ombudsman it did not believe the marketing was misleading.