Small businesses suffered disproportionate losses in the still ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Despite thousands of claims filed, many insurers still refuse to pay on claims. Over the last year and a half, many small businesses in Britain have demanded that their insurers cover claims for losses they accrued during the COVID-19 shutdowns. Those businesses have received more than $1.4 billion in full and interim business interruption payouts.
Early this year the UK Supreme Court upheld the previous judgment in favor of policyholders including businesses ranging from nightclubs to salons, on the majority of key issues, in the Financial Conduct Authority's closely watched business interruption insurance test case.
Last week, the Financial Conduct Authority said that more than 27,000 companies of the 42,308 which had claims accepted by their insurers, had received at least an interim payment.
This decision and the subsequent payouts go against the trends so far in the US. Here we have mostly seen courts side with insurers, instead of policyholders, but as always, those decisions swing on the specific facts of the case.