Copenhagen admits to costly hitch over wrongly charged wedding fees

Authorities in Copenhagen may be required to refund thousands of married couples after illegally charging wedding fees over seven years.

- Miranda Bryant

Most of the 12,000 who were wrongly billed during the period are understood to be from outside Denmark and are not permanent residents in the country.

Copenhagen municipality could now be forced to pay up to 23m krone (£2.7m) to correct the error.

The capital city charges a fee of up to 4,500 krone for weddings at its town hall at particular times and at designated outdoor locations.

But under Danish law, the municipality is only allowed to charge the fee if the couple has asked to be married outside the town hall.

Wedding tourism represents big business for the city, with about 5,000 international couples married there last year. Collectively they spent up to 120m krone (£13.8m), according to the Danish chamber of commerce.