The Lithuanian parliament has obliged foreigners and companies employing them to serve clients in Lithuanian as of 2026. How will the new language requirements affect businesses in Lithuania?
According to the amendments adopted this week, services will have to be provided in the official language at the level of Lithuanian language proficiency set by the government. Both foreign workers and their employers will be responsible for ensuring that services are provided in the national language at the level required.
The law will enter into force on January 1, 2026.
‘Hasty’ amendments
The new amendments will affect food delivery businesses in Lithuania, as a number of foreign nationals work as couriers on these platforms.
“It is too early to talk about concrete steps, but we will prepare for the changes as best as we can,” said Margarita Sargautytė, public relations officer at Bolt.
Meanwhile, Mantas Lomsargis, CEO of Wolt Baltics, said the amendments to the law “will have a negative impact on Lithuania’s economy, its competitiveness, and business environment”.
He pointed out that courier partners on food delivery platforms only deliver orders, while the customer service department is responsible for communicating with customers in Lithuanian if such a need arises.
“The platform is designed in such a way that courier partners and customers need to communicate directly as little as possible. In fact, 75 percent of our orders are delivered in a contactless way. In addition, technological solutions help to simplify communication,” Lomsargis said.
“The only situation where customers might need to communicate with a courier is when the courier cannot find the address. Wolt already has an automatic translation tool to mediate this type of situation – it translates the customer’s message into the courier’s telephone language and vice versa,” he added.
However, according to the CEO of Wolt Baltics, the adopted amendments do not clearly differentiate between direct and indirect services. This will lead to arbitrary interpretations of the legislation, he said.
“If the aim of the law is to ensure that services are provided in Lithuanian, we believe that companies should be allowed to determine the most effective means of achieving this goal,” Lomsargis stressed.
He also noted that most Wolt courier partners in Lithuania work less than 10 hours a week on the platform (the average is around 5 hours). Thus, for them, it is only an additional activity and income.
“It is unlikely that such people would want to spend extra hours learning a new language if they don’t need to,” Lomsargis said.
He noted that this was taken into account in neighbouring Estonia when politicians decided to exclude couriers when discussing the Language Act.
“The Estonian authorities tend to relax language rules in the service sector because of a general shortage of workers. According to a recent report by the European Employment Agency, Lithuania faces similar shortages, especially in the food services sector,” the CEO of Wolt Baltics explained.
According to him, the Seimas did not carry out an assessment of the potential impact on the economy when discussing the amendments that, in his opinion, were “hastily prepared”.
Help from employers
Indrė Trakimaitė-Šeškuvienė, head of the Corporate Communications Department of the supermarket chain Maxima, said its employees already serve customers only in Lithuanian. However, an exception is made for workers from Ukraine who are still learning Lithuanian.
“For three years in a row, we have been organising Lithuanian language courses for colleagues from Ukraine. We will continue to encourage and help them to learn to speak Lithuanian,” Trimaikaitė Šeškuvienė said.
Gintarė Kitovė, a representative of the supermarket chain Iki, also said that the law changes will not affect the work of the stores in general.
“The chain employs almost 5,500 people, about 200 of whom are foreign nationals who work in the chain’s stores and are still learning Lithuanian,” she said.
She noted that employees from Ukraine, for example, wear additional identification badges to warn customers that they may not yet understand the national language.
“Most of the foreigners working on the sales floor try to learn Lithuanian, they can converse in standard situations, say sums or general information in Lithuanian,” Kitovė said.
“When foreigners start working, we provide them with information not only about the job but also about where to learn Lithuanian, refer them to the right training institutions, and monitor how they are getting on,” she added.
Lina Skersytė, public relations manager at Lidl Lietuva, also said that the supermarket chain currently employs several dozen Ukrainians who are learning Lithuanian on their own.
“However, most of them do not work directly with customer service, but, for example, occupy positions in bakeries, work in the warehouse or the stockroom. They are also assisted by Lithuanian-speaking colleagues when needed. If these colleagues did not manage to fully learn Lithuanian by the [2026] deadline, they could continue to take up positions that do not deal directly with customers,” she said.
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