Our response to the FCA Business Interruption Test Case

02 Feb 2021

You will be aware that there has been a great deal of comment in the press regarding the outcome of the Supreme Court judgment in the FCA business interruption Test Case.

We appreciate this may have increased the volume of calls and emails from your clients so we just wanted to clarify our position and how the outcome impacts your clients with Aviva policies:

  • Aviva was not one of the eight insurers who were directly participating in the Test Case and for the majority of Aviva policies, the outcome of the Test Case does not change our position 
  • For Aviva “standard” policies, our Non-Damage Business Interruption cover, where provided, does not respond to business interruption caused by the Coronavirus pandemic:
    • Business Interruption disease cover is based on a specified list of diseases (and has been since the SARS outbreak in 2003). These policies do not provide cover for business interruption due to new and emerging diseases, like COVID-19. Our policy wording clearly identifies the diseases we offer cover for. 
    • Where denial of access cover is provided, (e.g. “Action by Police, Government or Competent Authority”) this expressly excludes any action taken by an authority in controlling, preventing or suppressing the spread of any disease.
  • If your client has a standard Aviva policy wording or has made a claim and received a communication from ourselves stating that their claim or complaint will not be affected by the Financial Conduct Authority’s Test Case process, this remains the case and the Supreme Court judgment will not affect the decision we have made.
  • There are however some non-standard policy wordings and for these policies or where a claim has been made and your client has received a communication that their claim or complaint may be affected by the Financial Conduct Authority’s Test Case process, this remains the case. In these cases, we will contact you further once we have assessed the impact of the Supreme Court judgment on their claim or complaint.  
  • The FCA’s website now includes a policy checker and FAQs that will help your clients find out if their insurance policy covers their business interruption losses caused by coronavirus and what they can do next.