diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/dev-cmd/audit.rb b/Library/Homebrew/dev-cmd/audit.rb
index ed78509607..007a91409f 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/dev-cmd/audit.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/dev-cmd/audit.rb
@@ -349,6 +349,8 @@ module Homebrew
     ].freeze
 
     def audit_license
+      return unless @new_formula
+
       if !formula.license.blank?
         if @spdx_ids.key?(formula.license)
           return unless @online
@@ -356,7 +358,7 @@ module Homebrew
           user, repo = get_repo_data(%r{https?://github\.com/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?.*}, false)
           return if user.nil?
 
-          github_license = get_repo_license_data(user, repo)
+          github_license = GitHub.get_repo_license(user, repo)
           return if github_license && (github_license == formula.license)
 
           problem "License mismatch - Github license is: #{github_license}, "\
@@ -369,18 +371,18 @@ module Homebrew
       end
     end
 
-    def get_repo_license_data(user, repo)
-      return unless @online
-
-      begin
-        res = GitHub.open_api("#{GitHub::API_URL}/repos/#{user}/#{repo}/license")
-        return unless res.key?("license")
-
-        res["license"]["spdx_id"] || nil
-      rescue GitHub::HTTPNotFoundError
-        nil
-      end
-    end
+    # def get_github_repo_license_data(user, repo)
+    #   return unless @online
+    #
+    #   begin
+    #     res = GitHub.open_api("#{GitHub::API_URL}/repos/#{user}/#{repo}/license")
+    #     return unless res.key?("license")
+    #
+    #     res["license"]["spdx_id"] || nil
+    #   rescue GitHub::HTTPNotFoundError
+    #     nil
+    #   end
+    # end
 
     def audit_deps
       @specs.each do |spec|
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/test/dev-cmd/audit_spec.rb b/Library/Homebrew/test/dev-cmd/audit_spec.rb
index 9802f40bd4..6878142d3a 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/test/dev-cmd/audit_spec.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/test/dev-cmd/audit_spec.rb
@@ -106,8 +106,21 @@ module Homebrew
       let(:custom_spdx_id) { "zzz" }
       let(:standard_mismatch_spdx_id) { "0BSD" }
 
+      it "does not check if the formula is not a new formula" do
+        fa = formula_auditor "foo", <<~RUBY, spdx_ids: spdx_ids, new_formula: false
+          class Foo < Formula
+            url "https://brew.sh/foo-1.0.tgz"
+            license ""
+          end
+        RUBY
+
+        fa.audit_license
+        p fa.problems
+        expect(fa.problems).to be_empty
+      end
+
       it "detects no license info" do
-        fa = formula_auditor "foo", <<~RUBY, spdx_ids: spdx_ids
+        fa = formula_auditor "foo", <<~RUBY, spdx_ids: spdx_ids, new_formula: true
           class Foo < Formula
             url "https://brew.sh/foo-1.0.tgz"
             license ""
@@ -120,7 +133,7 @@ module Homebrew
       end
 
       it "detects if license is not a standard spdx-id" do
-        fa = formula_auditor "foo", <<~RUBY, spdx_ids: spdx_ids
+        fa = formula_auditor "foo", <<~RUBY, spdx_ids: spdx_ids, new_formula: true
           class Foo < Formula
             url "https://brew.sh/foo-1.0.tgz"
             license "#{custom_spdx_id}"
@@ -132,7 +145,7 @@ module Homebrew
       end
 
       it "verifies that a license info is a standard spdx id" do
-        fa = formula_auditor "foo", <<~RUBY, spdx_ids: spdx_ids
+        fa = formula_auditor "foo", <<~RUBY, spdx_ids: spdx_ids, new_formula: true
           class Foo < Formula
             url "https://brew.sh/foo-1.0.tgz"
             license "0BSD"
@@ -145,7 +158,7 @@ module Homebrew
 
       it "checks online and verifies that a standard license id is the same "\
         "as what is indicated on its Github repo" do
-        fa = formula_auditor "cask", <<~RUBY, spdx_ids: spdx_ids, online: true, core_tap: true
+        fa = formula_auditor "cask", <<~RUBY, spdx_ids: spdx_ids, online: true, core_tap: true, new_formula: true
           class Cask < Formula
             url "https://github.com/cask/cask/archive/v0.8.4.tar.gz"
             head "https://github.com/cask/cask.git"
@@ -159,7 +172,7 @@ module Homebrew
 
       it "checks online and detects that a formula-specified license is not "\
         "the same as what is indicated on its Github repository" do
-        fa = formula_auditor "cask", <<~RUBY, online: true, spdx_ids: spdx_ids, core_tap: true
+        fa = formula_auditor "cask", <<~RUBY, online: true, spdx_ids: spdx_ids, core_tap: true, new_formula: true
           class Cask < Formula
             url "https://github.com/cask/cask/archive/v0.8.4.tar.gz"
             head "https://github.com/cask/cask.git"
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/utils/github.rb b/Library/Homebrew/utils/github.rb
index 556089c091..244bb397f2 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/utils/github.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/utils/github.rb
@@ -476,6 +476,15 @@ module GitHub
     open_api(url, scopes: ["admin:org", "user"], data: data, request_method: "POST")
   end
 
+  def get_repo_license(user, repo)
+    res = GitHub.open_api("#{GitHub::API_URL}/repos/#{user}/#{repo}/license")
+    return unless res.key?("license")
+
+    res["license"]["spdx_id"] || nil
+  rescue GitHub::HTTPNotFoundError
+    nil
+  end
+
   def api_errors
     [GitHub::AuthenticationFailedError, GitHub::HTTPNotFoundError,
      GitHub::RateLimitExceededError, GitHub::Error, JSON::ParserError].freeze