Square CBD Program FAQ

If you are not currently in our CBD program, you can apply for our program. If you are new to Square, please create an account using our CBD sign-up page.

If you already have an account, please navigate to Pricing & Subscriptions in your online Square Dashboard to apply for our program under the Optional Programs section.

Once you apply, we will immediately begin our review process and request relevant documentation, such as information about your business, item descriptions, and lab reports for your products. All current and future Square Sellers must apply for the CBD program to be approved to sell CBD.

Once you complete an application, your account will be subject to review. If approved, you can begin processing payments after the review is completed.

During our review, we may ask for additional information and documentation. To ensure that your application is processed quickly, please provide the requested information promptly to expedite your review process.
Our team will then reach out to you directly when your application review is completed, which usually takes 2-3 business days.

All verification emails or requests for information will be sent to the email address associated with your Square account.

Anyone is able to apply to our CBD Program. Refer to the section above, Signing Up for the CBD Program, for more information.

Square aims to maintain healthful and long term relationships with all merchants, including our CBD merchants. However, we cannot guarantee any given merchant’s ability to use Square. Our ability to continue offering our services is dependent on our relationships with our bank partners and applicable laws.

We recommend merchants familiarize themselves with Square’s Payment Terms to ensure they are not selling prohibited products and services, and promptly and fully respond to any requests for information sent by Square.

If you no longer wish to sell CBD products you may exit the program by visiting the Pricing & Subscriptions section of your online Square Dashboard, and then click Exit CBD Program under the Optional Programs section. By exiting, you attest that you’ve removed all CBD products from your inventory and online presence. You also acknowledge that your account will be subject to deactivation if you continue to sell CBD products outside of our program.

All sellers in our CBD Program will have their accounts reviewed for eligibility for our program. As a result of that review process, you may have a payment limit, or rolling reserve, applied to your account in order to continue processing with Square. Our team will reach out to the email address associated with your Square account if a limit of reserve has been applied to your account. We will monitor your account for any potential to change the terms over time.

Square works with multiple federally regulated and licensed acquiring banks.

Square currently allows sellers in the CBD Program to accept payments for hemp and hemp-derived CBD products that have less than, or equal to, 0.3% THC in most states within the United States. If you sell CBD products, including, for example, oil, flower, seeds, lotions, topicals, wax, etc., your business is required to be in the CBD Program. These products must be produced and sold in compliance with applicable law, including, but not limited to, the 2018 Farm Bill, and relevant state laws.

Square does not allow any sellers to sell marijuana, marijuana derived products, products that contain more than 0.3% THC, illegal drugs, and products that otherwise violate Square’s Payment Terms (e.g. kratom, kava, paraphernalia, bongs, pipes, etc.).

In 2023, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) issued a statement classifying synthetic cannabis as a controlled substance. With this, synthetically-derived cannabinoids, including hexahydrocannabinol (HHC) and tetrahydrocannabinol-o-acetate (THC-O), cannot be legally sold. Because synthetic cannabinoids do not occur naturally in the cannabis plant, products containing them cannot be legally classified as hemp. The DEA classifies synthetically-derived cannabinoid products as Schedule I controlled substance.

Hemp flower is permitted only if you provide lab certification confirming the THC level and ingredients. Please note that marijuana sales are not allowed, and Square has no plans to support such sales.

Square does not support payments for CBD products that are shipped to countries where CBD is illegal. You are not allowed to process payments for CBD products that will be shipped to any of the following countries: China, Hong Kong, Iceland, Iran, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, United Arab Emirates, and India. If we discover that you are shipping CBD products to any of the above referenced countries, your account will be subject to deactivation.

Square does not currently restrict the CNP sale of CBD-only vapes. However, please be aware that we cannot support the sale of CNP age-restricted products, including e-cigarettes (please see Section 3 of the Payment Terms). Additionally, if there are local rules around selling CBD-only vaping products in your business’ jurisdiction, those must be complied with.

Examples of information you will need to have on hand for your application include general information about your business, including but not limited to, transaction amounts, your refund policy, and recent bank statements. You should also have a description of your CBD products, your online store and social media accounts, and a certificate of analysis confirming Delta 9-THC percentages for each item.

If you sell any CBD products, no matter how few, you must be in the CBD Program. However, you may qualify for a custom rate if CBD is only a small portion of your overall sales.  

Our program is industry leading, which means we must be extra diligent about ensuring we have a robust CBD Program framework. Medical claims are particularly important for CBD products, so we have strict standards associated with such claims and CBD products. Furthermore, we want our financial system to be fair to everyone, including to buyers.

While we can’t provide legal advice, or a list of allowed or unallowed terms or phrases, we built our review process on FDA and other relevant guidelines. For example, we don’t allow any claims that your CBD products may be used to cure, treat, or aid conditions such as anxiety, inflammation, depression, PTSD, ADHD, cancer, or other health conditions. For more information, we encourage you to review the FDA website and warning letters that that the FDA has sent to CBD businesses regarding claims made about their products.

If we find an issue with your product(s), we’ll ask you to address the issue, and/or remove the item(s), and may suspend your account during this review. If you do not remedy the issue(s), your account will be deactivated.

Furthermore, if we observe continued violations of our CBD policies, the account will be subject to deactivation and future exclusion from the CBD Program.