London Excel heads back to court over dispute with insurance giants
London International Exhibition Centre (Excel) is back in court tomorrow as Allianz and other insurance giants look to overturn a High Court ruling in favour of the venue.
London Excel, like many businesses, took its insurers to court over business interruption losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Back in October 2022, it sued six insurance companies: Royal & Sun Alliance (RSA) Insurance, Allianz Insurance, CNA Insurance, Aviva Insurance, Zurich Insurance and Chubb European Group.
Excel’s claim, which is seeking roughly £16m, was heard with five similar claims brought by Kaizen Cuisine, Mayfair Banqueting, Hair Lab and Why Not Bar and Lounge against a range of insurance giants.
This case stemmed from the landmark test case ruling by the Supreme Court in 2021, which was brought by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Each policyholder had a form of ‘at the premises’ or “ATP” disease cover in their business interruption insurance policies. However, ATP disease cover was not within the scope of the FCA test case.
A High Court judge had to review the Supreme Court ruling to determine if it also applies to ATP disease clauses, just as it does to radius disease clauses in the test cases.
A ruling in June last year sided with the policyholders stating that ATP clauses are the same as radius disease clauses.
The insurers are now set to begin their challenge to overturn the ruling at the Court of Appeal tomorrow, with a hearing running until Friday. However, RSA and CNA will not be part of this as they settled with the owner of London ExCel back in April.