LONDON: Small businesses, from restaurants to nightclubs and wedding planners to beauty parlors, have won the right to insurance payouts after Britain’s highest court ruled their policies should cover losses caused by coronavirus lockdowns.
Six of the world’s largest commercial insurers Hiscox, RSA, QBE, Argenta, Arch and MS Amlin argued many business interruption policies did not cover widespread disruption after Britain’s first national lockdown last March.
But the UK Supreme Court dismissed appeals by the insurers after scrutinizing non-damage insurance policy clauses which cover disease, denial of access to business premises and hybrid clauses in a victory for the regulator and policyholders.