Texas Retail Hemp Registration

If you sell consumable hemp products at retail in Texas, you need a DSHS Retail Hemp Registration for each location — and the registration or renewal fee is $5,000 for each location, due before you sell (25 TAC §300.502(g)(1)). DSHS describes the fee as annual, plus the applicable Texas Online (TOL) processing fee — its licensing page currently quotes the all-in total as $5,150 per location including that fee. Fees are not prorated: opening in month eleven costs the same as opening in month one.

The registration is valid for one year from the date displayed on it and must be renewed annually. An expired registration is not current or valid — and the rule is blunt: you must not sell, or even offer to sell, a consumable hemp product without a valid registration (25 TAC §300.502(c)).

The rule requires a person to register each location with DSHS before selling consumable hemp products at retail — including any location owned, operated, or controlled by that person where consumable hemp products are sold (25 TAC §300.501(b)). Three stores means three registrations and three fees.

Two groups don't need their own registration: employees of a registrant, and independent contractors of a registrant who sell the registrant's products at retail (§300.501(c)). Your budtender doesn't register — your store does.

The chapter as a whole doesn't apply to low-THC cannabis regulated under the Compassionate Use Program (HSC Chapter 487) or to FDA-approved / GRAS-recognized products (§300.501(a)).

The rule text speaks in terms of registering each 'location' where products are sold. DSHS's current licensing guidance answers part of the e-commerce question directly: a Retail Hemp Registration is required for sellers who retail consumable hemp products online without a storefront and don't make any changes to the product or its packaging. What remains unaddressed is marketplaces, out-of-state fulfillment, and other unusual business models — for those, get an answer from DSHS or your attorney before you sell. How age verification must work for remote fulfillment is also its own open question.

Applications go in electronically through Texas.gov, in the manner DSHS prescribes, with all fees submitted with the application (§300.502(a), (f), (g)). The application itself is short:

DSHS works on defined timelines (§300.502(d)): 45 calendar days from a completed application to confirm completeness (or notify you what's missing), another 45 calendar days to issue the registration or propose denial, and 135 calendar days for you to cure an incomplete application before it's treated as withdrawn.

If DSHS misses its own deadlines, you can request full reimbursement of the fee in writing within 30 business days after the second period ends; if the department can't show good cause for the delay, the refund must be approved (§300.502(h)). Practical takeaway: apply well before opening day — the clocks assume a complete application.

Renewal is annual. File before the expiration date on the registration: filing a renewal after expiration adds a $1,000 delinquency fee on top of the $5,000 (§300.502(g)(2)) — and remember, an expired registration means you must stop selling until it's valid again.

Minor changes during the registration period — change of location, name, or address — take a $125 amendment fee (§300.502(g)(3)).

Once registered, proof of registration must be prominently displayed in a conspicuous location visible to the public (§300.502(e)). Frame it and put it where customers can see it, like a food-handler permit.

Selling consumable hemp products at retail without the required registration is a violation — and each day it continues counts as a separate violation when DSHS calculates an administrative penalty (25 TAC §300.601(a)(2), (b)). A quarter of unregistered selling isn't one violation; it's ninety.

The rule sets the penalty process, not a dollar schedule: DSHS must notify a retailer of a potential violation and give the registrant a chance to resolve unintentional or negligent violations; penalties are assessed on seriousness, history, deterrence, and correction efforts; you get 20 business days to accept or request a hearing at the State Office of Administrative Hearings (§300.606).

Beyond penalties, product that is adulterated or misbranded — the rule's detention triggers — can be detained or embargoed, and DSHS can seek court-ordered destruction at your cost — with possible referral to law enforcement where THC content meets the definition of a controlled substance (§§300.603–300.604).

And the registration itself is at stake for age violations: selling to a minor — anyone under 21 — is grounds for revocation of the registration after a hearing, unless the minor presented an apparently valid ID (§§300.701–300.702). Age verification isn't a separate compliance topic from registration; it's a condition of keeping it.