Successor employer liability under COBRA

[Guest Rich Jochum]

Anyone experience issues with DOL assertion that company acquiring assets (not stock) of another company has liability to provide benefits to selling company's COBRA participants. Current IRS regs are vague on the subject and IRS has issued proposed regs that address topic. But what has DOL done in terms of current enforcement??

[Kirk Maldonado]

My experience has been that the enforcement actions relatilng to COBRA emanate from private litigants, not from governmental entities. Interestingly enough, some COBRA compliance comes about as a result of due diligence in M&A activities, when employers learn that they have not been in compliance with COBRA.