The Supreme Court on Business Interruption Insurance and COVID-19: Financial Conduct Authority v Arch Insurance (UK) Ltd [2021] UKSC 1

Abstract

From the early days of the first national lockdown in England, widespread concerns over many different types of insurance claims had been raised. The business interruption losses that the small businesses and enterprises suffered received particular attention and were covered broadly by the national media channels. The policy wordings in question were so varied that it was not possible for any party to provide a clear outcome that will have a widespread effect on such insurance claims. Through the Financial Conduct Authority's involvement, the UK Supreme Court delivered a much-awaited judgment in a test case on the twenty-one selected policy wordings, fourteen of which were held to respond to the Covid-19 related business interruption claims. The significant impact of the test case, which prevented an ongoing uncertainty and avoided protracted litigation for many, is that many thousands of policyholders should now have their claims for business interruption losses paid.