Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Tens of thousands of small businesses who faced COVID-19 earning losses during the first lockdown are set to receive insurance pay-outs.
The Supreme Court has ruled in favour of small businesses to get pay-outs from their business interruption policies.
Many businesses claimed on their policies in spring 2020 to recover lost earnings. However, insurers refused to pay because they say that only their most specialist policies had cover in such unprecedented circumstances.
The judgement says that ‘it substantially allows’ the appeal from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and campaign groups Hiscox Action Group and Hospitality Insurance Group Action. Insurers including Arch, Argenta, MS Amlin, RSA and QBE had their appeals rejected.
It was agreed that a number of policy wordings should be contested in court to set the parameters of what would be a valid claim. This ruling gives guidance for 700 different insurance policies, potentially covering 370,000 small businesses.
High Court and Appeal Court judges had appealed largely in favour of policyholders earlier in the pandemic. In September, the High Court ruled that most claims should be paid where the policy has pandemic or disease clauses.
However, that ruling said that losses arising from general fall in customer