HB 210: Alcoholic beverages; retail dealers; revise provisions

Georgia law currently caps most people at holding or having a beneficial interest in no more than two retail alcohol dealer licenses. This bill creates an exception: in any county that collected $750 million or more in tax revenue in the most recent fiscal year, a person could hold additional licenses beyond the normal two, with the allowed number phased in over time, starting at one extra license before July 1, 2026 and rising to five extra licenses by July 1, 2032. The bill also changes the rule for moving a license to a new location. If the license being moved is one of these new additional licenses, the new location must stay in the same county as the old one. Separately, the bill doubles the number of tasting events a retail package liquor store may hold each year, from 52 to 104, while keeping existing rules on hours, pour sizes, and notification to local governments. The changes would take effect July 1, 2025.

• Creates a new category of additional retail alcohol dealer licenses that a person can hold beyond the current two-license cap, limited to counties with $750 million or more in annual tax revenue.
• Phases in the number of extra licenses allowed per person, rising from one before July 1, 2026 to five by July 1, 2032.
• Requires that if a business holding one of these additional licenses relocates, the new location must be in the same county as the old one.
• Doubles the annual limit on tasting events a retail package liquor store may hold, from 52 to 104 per calendar year.
• Updates gendered pronoun language in the retail license relocation statute (O.C.G.A. § 3-4-21.1) from 'he'/'his' to 'they'/'their'.

Retail liquor, wine, and beer dealers and their license holders, especially those operating or seeking to expand in Georgia's wealthiest, highest tax-revenue counties, along with county and municipal governments that oversee local alcohol sales and receive notice of tasting events.

Retailers in high-revenue counties could expand their footprint by holding more licenses than currently allowed, potentially changing local market competition, while the same-county relocation rule would limit how freely those expanded license holders could move locations. More tasting events could also increase consumer sampling opportunities at liquor stores statewide.

• Section 1 revises O.C.G.A. § 3-4-21 to allow additional retail dealer licenses beyond the standard two-license cap for locations in counties collecting $750 million or more in tax revenue in the most recent fiscal year.
• Section 1 sets a schedule capping additional licenses per person at one before July 1, 2026, rising incrementally to seven or more on and after July 1, 2032.
• Section 1 clarifies that a county's tax revenue qualification is locked in at the time of application or acquisition and is not affected by later drops in county revenue.
• Section 2 amends O.C.G.A. § 3-4-21.1 to require that if an additional retail dealer license is transferred to a new location, that location must be in the same county as the one previously occupied.
• Section 3 revises O.C.G.A. § 3-15-2 to raise the annual cap on retail package liquor store tasting events from 52 to 104 per year.
• Section 4 sets the effective date of the Act as July 1, 2025.

1. 2025-02-04House Second Readers (House)
2. 2025-02-03House First Readers (House)
3. 2025-01-30House Hopper (House)

• Tyler Smith (R, HD-018)Primary sponsor
• Kasey Carpenter (R, HD-004)
• Leesa Hagan (R, HD-156)
• Lehman Franklin (R, HD-160)
• Charles Cannon (R, HD-172)
• Will Wade (R, HD-009)

• alcoholic beverages
• retail liquor licensing
• tasting events
• county tax revenue