On Friday, Mr. Duckett got some good news after the delay in getting an insurance payout forced him to take on new debt a few months away from paying off his loans: The country’s highest court unanimously rejected insurers’ appeals, clearing the way for him and hundreds of thousands of other small-business owners in Britain to receive insurance payouts for business interruption claims from the pandemic.
The Financial Conduct Authority, Britain’s financial services regulator, brought the legal test case on behalf of policyholders to the country’s highest courts to try to quickly resolve the issue.
The Supreme Court ruling, which is legally binding for eight insurers
involved in the case, is expected to affect 370,000 businesses holding 700 types of policies issued by 60 insurers.
The decision has sweeping implications for small businesses that have been forced to repeatedly close or shut down huge parts of their operations under government orders to contain the virus. The pandemic has imperiled small businesses and their employees, with a quarter of the businesses saying they cut staff in the last few months of 2020.
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