What happens if a med spa in Washington operates without the right license?
Enforcement · part of The Practice Perimeter
The Secretary shall investigate complaints concerning practice by UNLICENSED persons of any profession requiring a license, and may issue a notice of intention to issue a cease and desist order. The recipient has twenty days to request an adjudicative proceeding; failing to request one is a default, on which the Secretary may enter a permanent cease and desist order that may include a civil fine.
Wash. Rev. Code 18.130.190(1) and (2) · verified Sep 2, 2026 · regulatory monitoring, not legal advice
Related Washington rules
⚠️ the fine is per day, not per incident. On a final determination that a person has engaged or is engaging in unlicensed practice, the Secretary may issue a cease and desist order and impose a civil fine not exceeding one thousand dollars for each day on which the person engaged in unlicensed practice.
Wash. Rev. Code 18.130.190(3) · verified Sep 2, 2026
And it can be stopped before a hearing. On a written finding that the public interest will be irreparably harmed by delay, the Secretary may issue a TEMPORARY cease and desist order, which remains in effect until further order; the recipient is given an opportunity for a prompt hearing, and failing to request one is again a default.
Wash. Rev. Code 18.130.190(4) · verified Sep 2, 2026
How other states answer this
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Related Washington questions
- Can Washington shut down a med spa that is operating unlawfully?
- What can a practitioner in Washington be disciplined for?
Get Washington changes as they publish
We scan the Washington legislature and licensing boards daily, plus the FDA and the Federal Register. Free weekly Brief — what changed, in plain language, with the source.
Free · unsubscribe in one click · we never sell your address
← All Washington rules and changes · MedSpaRadar is regulatory monitoring and reference: it summarizes public laws, regulations and agency actions and links each to its source. It is not legal, medical, or compliance advice, and using it creates no attorney-client relationship. A summary can lag its source or leave out detail, and monitoring itself can be interrupted — so an absence of alerts means nothing reached you, not that nothing happened. Read the cited source, check its effective date, and confirm any change to your operations or clinical practice with qualified health-law counsel and your medical director. Legislative data via LegiScan (CC BY 4.0).