Policy covering financial losses from event cancellation, postponement or abandonment, whose communicable disease exclusions were redefined after Covid-19.
Event cancellation insurance covers organizers of shows, concerts, sporting events, conferences and fairs against financial losses resulting from a cancellation or postponement caused by an unforeseen external event. Main covers include abandonment and cancellation (net revenue losses if the event does not take place), non-appearance (failure of a headline artist or athlete, for example through illness or death), adverse weather (cancellation due to extreme meteorological conditions) and losses from physical damage to the event venue. The Covid-19 pandemic constituted a major systemic loss for this line, with billions of dollars in claims worldwide. It led to near-universal rewriting of communicable disease clauses: the vast majority of policies issued after 2020 explicitly exclude pandemics and epidemics, or cover them with strict sub-limits and waiting periods. The market is highly concentrated at Lloyd's. Concerts and world tours by headline artists are covered by bespoke policies worth tens of millions of euros, with pricing terms reflecting the artist's specific risk profile (age, health, history of cancellations).
A world tour by an international pop artist is insured for 120 million euros of guaranteed revenues over 60 dates. The artist is hospitalized for cardiac surgery and the tour is canceled two weeks before the opening night. The non-appearance cover is triggered and the insurer compensates the organizer for net revenue losses less savings on variable costs not yet incurred.
event cancellation, abandonment and cancellation, non-appearance, assurance annulation