Supreme court rules against insurersSix of the world’s largest commercial insurers - Hiscox, RSA, QBE, Argenta, Arch and MS Amlin - said many business interruption policies did not cover widespread disruption after the UK's first national lockdown last March.
But senior judges said many payouts should be triggered after scrutinising non-damage insurance policy clauses, which cover disease, denial of access to business premises and hybrid clauses.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it would be working with insurers to ensure they quickly settled claims they were now required to pay and to make interim payments if possible.
The FCA took insurers to court last June in a case expected to have ramifications for 370,000 policyholders, 60 insurers and billions of pounds in claims because many policies have similar wordings.