This blog was co-authored by Julia Sham-Guild and James Donald The Covid-19 pandemic has forced many industries to become highly reliant on digital markets. The gradual move over the past few decades and this recent sharp uptake as a result of Covid-19 has resulted in an increased need for regulators to be able to monitor the conduct of parties in this sector. The European Commission recently released its proposed artificial intelligence (AI) regulations, while the…

In this August 2021 judgment, the Federal Court of Australia in Star Entertainment Group Limited v Chubb Insurance Australia Limited [2021] FCA 907 had to deal with the interpretation of an insurance policy of the insureds who owned and operated various casinos and associated businesses.  The insureds allege that the government’s directions in connection with Covid-19 caused significant interruption to their business and that, under the insured’s industrial special risks insurance policy and memorandum 7,…

In June 2021 the High Court of Australia held that a clause in a business interruption policy that excluded diseases that were “declared to be quarantinable diseases under the Quarantine Act, 1908 and subsequent amendments” did not include diseases quarantinable under the Biosecurity Act, 2015 which had repealed and replaced the 1908 Act. The insurers argued that a reasonable person would have understood the words “and subsequent amendments” to include a reference to the replacement…

There has been a plethora of Covid-19 policy coverage litigation across the United States.  Absent non-damage extensions under business interruption policies the courts have had to consider whether amongst other things government restrictions on businesses including shutdown orders constituted interruption of business caused by loss to property insured.  That included whether those restrictions on businesses constituted accidental physical loss or accidental physical damage. Many judgments, at least at the preliminary stage of hearing have denied…

The New South Wales Court of Appeal, considering the wording of a business interruption policy in the context of a Covid-19 claim, dealt with the contra proferentem rule which provides that any ambiguity in a policy of insurance should be resolved by adopting the construction favourable to the insured.  The court remarked that the contra proferentem rule is now generally regarded as a doctrine of last resort.  This is because interpretation of contracts takes into…

Whilst Government had initially taken the view that vaccinations against COVID-19 would not be made mandatory, the revised Consolidated Directions on Occupational Health and Safety Measures in certain workplaces (the Directions), promulgated by the Minister of Employment and Labour, on 11 June 2021, reflect a significant change of approach. In particular the Directions now implicitly permit, subject to a number of safeguards, employers to differentiate between, those employees who become vaccinated and those who refuse. Regulation…

Another American court in G & A Family Enterprises, LLC d/b/a Smokin’ Pig BBQ & Others v American Family Insurance Company 1: 20-CV-03912-JPB has held that State-imposed Covid-19 restrictions do not qualify as a “direct physical loss” under the insurance policy held by the insureds. The court held that while the phrase “direct physical loss” is not defined in the policies, the plain and literal meaning of the words requires that there must actual, physical…