Information about the FCA business interruption Test Case
On 1 May 2020, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced that it intended to obtain a court declaration to resolve uncertainty around whether certain non-damage business interruption insurance policies provide cover for losses arising as a result of COVID-19.
Although Aviva was not one of the eight insurers who are directly participating in the test case, we continue to be supportive of the FCA’s approach which we hope will bring clarity and finality for affected customers.
For customers who have received a communication that their claim or complaint “will not be affected by the Financial Conduct Authority’s forthcoming Test Case process”, this remains the case and the Test Case judgment will not affect the decision we have made.
If you/your customers have received a communication that your claim or complaint “may be affected by the Financial Conduct Authority’s forthcoming Test Case process”, this remains the case. We will contact you/them further once we have assessed the impact of the Supreme Court judgment on their claim or complaint. We understand that this has been and continues to be a difficult and concerning time, and are working to review the position for claims and complaints that are potentially affected by the Supreme Court judgment. If you/your customers received a communication that, in light of the proposed scope of appeals, we consider that the issues that were considered by the Test Case that are relevant to our assessment of your claim or complaint have already been finally resolved, and would not be affected by the outcome of the appeals in the Supreme Court, this remains the case and the Supreme Court judgment will not affect the decision we have made.
On 15 January 2021 the Supreme Court handed down its judgment on the appeal. The judgment can be found here. There are no further avenues of appeal from the Supreme Court so all rights of appeal have now been concluded in respect of the Test Case.
On the 12 March 2021 the FCA published a list of insurers and policies which insurers including Aviva have reported may respond “in principle” as a result of the Supreme Court judgment. Please note that, as the FCA points out:
- Inclusion in this list does not mean that the outcome on any particular claim for the below policy wordings will be affected. Each policy wording and policyholder’s circumstances will need to be considered on a case by case basis
- Where a policy is not included on this list, this may be for a number of reasons including but not limited to the policy wording being of a type not tested in the Test Case (e.g. containing an exhaustive list of diseases only or where the policy contains a relevant exclusion clause which was not tested)
- The list does not include policy wordings which are only held by fewer than 5 policyholders.
Updated 25/03/2021 - The FCA will also periodically publish data on the number of claims settled and pending across the UK market, where the decision to accept claims was affected by the test case.
We are carefully considering the Supreme Court judgment, and any impact that this may have on claims and complaints under relevant Business Interruption policies on which Aviva provides cover and which we have previously identified as potentially affected by the outcome of the Test Case.
First Published – 16/09/2020
Updated – 22/09/2020
Updated - 28/09/2020
Updated - 22/10/2020
Updated – 09/11/2020
Updated - 12/11/2020
Updated - 15/01/2021
Updated - 16/03/2021
Updated - 25/03/2021