Hanover Insurance Unit Can’t Yet Avoid Covering Privacy Deal

Although an insurance policy provision barred coverage for a settlement in a privacy class action, a Hanover Insurance Group Inc. unit may have forfeited its right to raise the exclusion, a federal court ruled.

There are open factual questions as to whether Citizens Insurance Co. can rely on the “access or disclosure” exclusion to deny coverage for a $20 million settlement in an underlying class action brought under Illinois’ landmark Biometric Information Privacy Act, the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said in a March 27 order.

The coverage dispute was initiated by underlying plaintiffs who settled ...