Higher Inflation, More FCA Penalties

On January 30, 2023, the Department of Justice (DOJ) published its latest increases to the False Claims Act (FCA) civil monetary penalties range to adjust for inflation. The 2023 adjustments apply to penalties assessed by DOJ after January 30, 2023, for violations that occurred after November 2, 2015.

Although federal agencies are required to publish civil penalty adjustments every year by January 15 to account for inflation in the previous year, meeting the deadline has not been a priority for DOJ. But this year it came close. Its last FCA civil penalty increases were published in May 2022.

The 2023 civil penalty adjustments are based on the October 2022 Consumer Price Index published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. To calculate the 2023 adjustments, the applicable inflation factor, 1.07745, was applied to each of the civil penalty amounts listed and rounded to the nearest dollar amount. The existing minimum penalty of $12,537 was therefore increased to $13,508