Rock band goes heavy on Lloyd’s over canceled concerts

The heavy metal band Metallica has filed a suit against Lloyd’s of London over losses suffered as a result of having to twice postpone its South American tour because of COVID-19 shutdowns.

The band’s original six-concert schedule was slated for April 2020 and later December 2020, both tours canceled because of the shutdowns with no new dates as of yet, leaving the band to rely on its standard “cancellation, abandonment and non-appearance insurance” policy to cover their losses, according to the suit filed Monday in the Los Angeles Superior Court and accessed by CBS News.

The band says it “timely turned to (Lloyd’s) for the promised and reasonably expected coverage for their losses and alleges that Lloyd’s cited the policy’s communicable disease exclusion and “denied any coverage obligation whatsoever based on an unreasonably restrictive interpretation of the policy.”

On Thursday, a representative for Lloyd’s responded to the suit, stating that “Lloyd’s is not an insurance company, it oversees and regulates a market of independent insurers” and that for “that reason, we have no information on any specific policy or lawsuit and in any event are not authorized to comment on matters in litigation.”

More insurance and risk management news on the coronavirus crisis here.