2018 DOL Penalty Amounts for ERISA Violations

September 12, 2018

he Department of Labor (DOL) announced increased 2018 penalties for employee benefit plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). The increases generally apply to penalties that involve employee benefit reporting and disclosure failures if the penalty is assessed after January 2, 2018, and if the violation occurred after November 2, 2015. As a background, the 2015 Inflation Adjustment Act directs the DOL to annually adjust for inflation certain penalties for specified ERISA violations.

Description of Violation	2018 Penalty	2017 Penalty
Failure or refusal to file a Form 5500	Up to $2,097 per day	Up to $2,063 per day
Failure to provide documents and information requested by the DOL	Up to $152 per day not to exceed $1,527 per request	Up to $149 per day not to exceed $1,496 per request
Failure to provide reports to certain former participants and beneficiaries and failure to maintain records	Up to $28 per day	Up to$28 per day
Failure by an employer to inform employees of CHIP coverage opportunities	Up to $112 per day per employee	Up to $110 per day per employee
Violations of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), such as establishing eligibility rules based on genetic information or requesting genetic information for underwriting purposes	Up to $112 per participant per day	Up to $110 per participant per day
Failure to provide annual Summary of Benefits Coverage (SBC)	Up to $1,105 per failure	Up to $1,087 per failure

For more information:

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/going-up-but-never-down-2018-erisa-87460/