We have issued class actions on behalf of thousands of businesses who held business interruption insurance during the COVID-19 pandemic. The class actions are against two major insurers, QBE and Lloyd’s of London.
The class actions argue that class members are entitled to an insurance payout, because their business insurance policy covered them for when their business was closed due to COVID-19 lockdowns. The insurers so far have denied cover to thousands of businesses.
If you have received a notice from the Federal Court informing you that you are a group member in this proceeding, you should consider registering to ensure that you and the other group members are able to benefit from the class actions.
If you have questions about the class actions, call us on 1300 584 626 or read our Frequently Asked Questions.
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Frequently Asked Questions
QBE Business Interruption Claims
What is this class action about?
QBE and Lloyds are insurers. Like most insurers, they sold “business insurance” to businesses. Business insurance covers your business for a lot of things that could go wrong. One of the things that can be covered is ‘business interruption’. That means when your business can’t open because of things that aren’t your fault, your insurer covers your costs under the terms of their policy with you. During the COVID pandemic, many businesses were interrupted, because they were closed. The Chief Health Officers in each State ordered that some businesses close, as a part of the Pandemic response – for example, cafes, restaurants, gyms, hairdressers, cinemas and many others.
Insurers have mostly not paid out on business interruption insurance claims and have told people that they are not covered. The insurance industry, through the Insurance Council of Australia, told people that ‘pandemics were not covered’. We believe that for QBE and some Lloyds customers , that information was wrong – and it stopped people from making claims. The point of this class action is to get the insurers to pay out claims under specific QBE and Lloyds policies to the businesses.
Why have I received a “Notice to Class Members” from the Federal Court?
The Notice to Class Members is a notice approved by the Court that is sent to all of the “class members” in the business interruption insurance class actions. Class members are people like you who had insurance for their business with QBE or Lloyds.
The purpose of the notice is to let you know that you can register for the class action to give it the best chance of going ahead.
Why should I register for the class action?
The parties to the class action and the Court are seeking to determine how many class members want to proceed with the class action. If you do not register by, there is an increased risk that the class action will not go ahead, in which case you will need to pursue your potential claim directly, and you will lose the benefits of being a class member in the class action.
What is a class action?
A class action is a kind of legal claim where many people bring a claim against the same person. In this case, the many people are the thousands of businesses that held insurance with QBE or Lloyds during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those businesses say that the insurers are required to pay out their insurance claims because they had insurance which covered them for the pandemic.
What is a class member?
A “group member” or “class member” is a person who shares a dispute with the representative applicants in a class action, even though they may not know it. A representative applicant is a person who “represents” the other people in the class action. For example, in this case, the representative applicants are insured businesses, who held policies of insurance like yours. They made claims on those policies when their businesses were closed because of lockdowns, and those claims were refused by their insurers. The representative applicants have now sued the insurers for refusing their claims.
If you are a group member, it means that you hold the same or very similar policy to the representative applicants, and so you likely have the same claim against your insurer, even though you may not have known it. A list of the policies that apply can be found here [link]. Gordon Legal can help you with this if you call us on (03) 9603 3000 or by visiting us online at www.gordonlegal.com.au
When the Court makes a decision on the representative applicant’s case, it will also affect you, because your legal cases are substantially the same. This means that you have the benefit of the representative applicant standing in the shoes of thousands of other businesses like yours.