In this article, the issue of impuability to the State of public undertakings’ decision-making is analysed and discussed in the context of the DSBFirst case. DSBFirst is owned by the independent public undertaking DSB and the private undertaking FirstGroup plc and won the contracts in the 2008 Oeresund tender for the provision of passenger transport by railway. From the start, the services were provided at a loss, and in the end a part of DSBFirst was wound up. In order to