Hungary: Hungarian Competition Authority opened investigation into Duolingo over fair marketing practices

On 17 September 2025, the Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) initiated competition supervision proceedings against Duolingo over allegedly unfair commercial practices. The GVH suspects that the company may have misled consumers about the effectiveness of its learning method and made unfounded claims of market leadership, such as the slogan “Duolingo – The best way to learn a language in the world.” The investigation also concerns allegedly misleading claims about learning outcomes, for example, “after 1 month of using Duolingo, 9 out of 10 language learners speak the language confidently”, as well as the lack of clear and timely information on the limits of free use, insufficient availability of its terms of use in Hungarian, and the use of psychological pressure through frequent and unsolicited marketing messages encouraging increased use or paid subscriptions. The GVH stated that around 380’000 people in Hungary use Duolingo daily. It also underlined that the initiation of proceedings does not imply a breach, and that the statutory period for completion is three months, which may be extended twice by up to two months each time.