UK COVID Test Case Decided, Deals Blow to Insurers

London’s High Court has handed down its judgment in the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA)’s business interruption insurance test case. After considering the arguments advanced by the FCA, the Court found in favor of the policyholders on the majority of the key issues. The case is The Financial Conduct Authority v. Arch and Others. 

In bringing the test case, the FCA’s objective was to clarify key issues of contractual uncertainty for policyholders and insurers. In order to do this, the FCA selected a representative sample of policy language from eight volunteer insurers. The FCA estimated that 700 types of policies across at least sixty different insurers and 370,000 policyholders could be affected by the outcome of the test case. The FCA’s aim was to argue the policyholder’s side to their best advantage in the public interest.