Consumer protection authorities have ruled in cases where gas stations withheld large sums of money from payment cards before refueling vehicles, and this is the ruling…

Gas stations are not allowed to charge unreasonably high amounts to consumers' accounts.
When a gas station reserves a certain amount of fuel before a consumer fills up their car, this amount should not be unreasonably high compared to the final payment. The Consumer Ombudsman's Office has informed several gas station chains of these rules, and most have now changed their practices.

The fuel station chains Q8, OK, Shell, and Ono-X have been charging consumers unreasonably high amounts compared to what they ultimately paid. The company that owns Q8 also operates the F24 self-service stations.

In several cases, reservations were not issued quickly enough, and customers at Q8 and OK were not informed clearly enough that a certain amount had been reserved.

After the consumer protection agency informed petrol station chains of the regulations, both Ono-X and Shell modified their practices so that consumers can now select a reservation amount from the display screen, which corresponds to the maximum purchase amount. OKI has currently reduced the reservation amount to 100 kroner but anticipates a different solution in the future. Q8 still sets the reservation amount at 950 kroner but stated that it is working on a solution.

The Consumer Ombudsman's Office took up these cases following a 2023 dialogue with the Danish fuel station association, Drefcraft Denmark, regarding the lack of explicit consent for reservations. At that time, the association committed to clearly displaying the reserved amount on the payment screen, rather than placing small labels on the payment terminals. However, the Ombudsman's Office did not reach an agreement with Drefcraft Denmark on the legality of reserving a significantly larger amount in a consumer's account than they were required to pay.

Therefore, the current issues are primarily related to the size of the reservation amount, but it also appears that some petrol station chains are still having problems approving reservations.

The Consumer Ombudsman's Office concluded that the practice of Uno-X and Shell holding 1,200 and 1,500 Danish kroner respectively was unreasonable, as the amount did not reflect what most consumers would expect. Similarly, the holding of 950 and 850 Danish kroner respectively – as practiced by Q8 and OK – was unreasonable for small cars, micro cars, and even smaller vehicles.

When a company places a hold on a consumer's account, the consumer has no control over that amount. Therefore, the consumer must approve the hold when it is placed. If the final amount is not known beforehand—as is the case with fuel purchases—the consumer must approve the held amount. Furthermore, the hold must be canceled as soon as the bank receives the final payment notification.

Q8 has not yet included a feature to request booking confirmation within the payment process, but has now stated that it is working on implementing it and will be fully operational by mid-2026. However, both Q8 and OK lack a solution for consumers paying via Apple Pay/Google Pay who do not see the required text in the payment flow. OK has stated that it will place clear signage at the point of payment. The Consumer Ombudsman's Office has assessed that this feature should be included within the payment flow itself. Q8 has stated that it is working on a software solution.

The Consumer Ombudsman's Office received complaints from consumers whose reserved funds were not being released quickly enough by OK, Uno-X, and Shell gas stations. In some cases, it took up to 11 days for the funds to be released. The delays in releasing reservations were often due to technical issues at the bank. The gas station chains have taken steps to improve their procedures and address the delays.

The Consumer Affairs Ombudsman is closing cases brought against all petrol station chains, and has asked Q8 and OK to comply with the rules.

Consumer complaints investigator Torben Jensen says: “When a company holds a charge against a consumer’s account, that charge should be reasonably proportionate to the amount the consumer ultimately pays. Therefore, it’s unreasonable for gas stations to hold around 900 kroner or more from customers who need to refuel their small cars. I’m very pleased that Shell, Ono-X, and OKI have introduced new solutions that allow consumers to choose the maximum amount of fuel they can fill up with, or to have a much lower limit held.”.

When funds are frozen in a consumer's account, the consumer loses control of their money. Therefore, it is important that the consumer agrees to this and releases the funds as soon as possible.

Legislation in this area:

Approval of the specified booking amount

With regard to reservations where the final transaction amount is not known at the time the consumer agrees to the payment transaction, it follows expressly from Article 95 of the Payments Act that the consumer must agree to the specific amount being reserved:

Article 95. If a payment transaction is initiated by or through the beneficiary in connection with a card-based payment transaction, and the final amount is not known at the time the payer agrees to execute the payment transaction, the payer's service provider may not reserve funds in the payer's payment account unless the payer agrees to the specific amount to be reserved.

When a company places a lien on a consumer's account, the consumer loses control of the held funds until the lien is released. Any action regarding the disposal of consumer funds requires a prior agreement between the consumer and the company.

Booking amount

Payments law rules do not regulate whether companies are allowed to hold funds in consumers' accounts.

However, an agreement to make a reservation may be unreasonable under Section 38c of the Danish Contract Act, see Section 36, if there is no objective reason for making a reservation, or if the amount reserved is unreasonable.

The company's violation of civil consumer protection legislation, including contract law, would generally constitute a violation of Section 3 of the Marketing Practices Act concerning good marketing practices:

§ 3. Companies should demonstrate good marketing practices, taking into account consumers, businesses and the general societal interests; see, however, subparagraph 3.

Cancel reservations

This has implications under Article 95(2) of the Danish Payments Act, when the consumer's payment service provider (usually the consumer's bank) must cancel the reservation:

Subparagraph 2. The payer’s service provider must release the funds held in the payer’s account that have been withheld, see subparagraph 1, as soon as possible after receiving information about the final amount and no later than immediately after receiving the payment order.

The consumer's payment service provider is the responsible party, but the company (the beneficiary) may be held liable for violating this provision.