Mar 2021
On 15 January 2021, the United Kingdom Supreme Court delivered its judgment on the appeals in the Business Interruption Insurance (BII) test cases between the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and eight UK insurance companies.
The Supreme Court’s judgment is reported as Financial Conduct Authority v Arch Insurance (UK) Ltd and Ors [2021] UKSC 1, and it has been widely reported in the media, and in insurance industry publications.
The Supreme Court’s judgment has clarified, under English law, whether or not a variety of insurance policy wordings cover BII losses resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, and from the public health measures taken by UK authorities in response to the pandemic from March 2020.
The Supreme Court has largely found in favour of the Financial Conduct Authority, offering some degree of comfort to the 370,000 UK policyholders said to be affected.