Insurer FBD is changing the wording of its commercial insurance policies to exclude communicable diseases like Covid-19 from coverage, as the company faces a Commercial Court battle with publicans over its business interruption coverage during the pandemic, the Sunday Independent reveals.

Starting on August 1, FBD began updating pub trade policies to reflect the company’s position that Covid and other communicable diseases should not be covered by business interruption insurance. The new boilerplate language is being rolled out across other commercial insurance products on an ongoing basis.

The changes come as FBD faces a test case on October 6th against four pubs over the refusal to pay out claims for business closures during the pandemic. The result will help determine if the insurer will have to pay claims for 1,300 business customers that were forced to close because of public health advice.

Job losses in the air as tourism is