Personal and Advertising Injury
What Is Personal and Advertising Injury?
Personal and advertising injury coverage responds to claims related to how you advertise your business’ goods and services. It’s included in most commercial general liability policies.
A personal injury is an act that infringes upon or violates the rights of an individual or business, excluding physical bodily harm. Advertising injury refers to an act that harms an individual or business via an advertisement.
Personal and Advertising Injury Examples
Personal injuries and advertising injuries are two separate offenses combined together under one type of insurance coverage.
Personal Injury Example
One example of a personal injury insurance claim could be a defamation case involving libel.
Imagine you post a negative review of a competitor online and accuse them of unsanitary food handling practices. If their business suffers as a result of your statement, they could sue you for defamation.
With personal and advertising injury insurance, you could receive coverage for any legal costs or settlement fees you owe as a result of this claim.
Advertising Injury Example
Copyright infringement is a common advertising injury claim.
If you use a copyrighted image of a popular cartoon character in your advertising without obtaining permission, the owner of the copyright could decide to sue you for infringement. This claim could be covered under personal and advertising injury insurance.
What Does Personal and Advertising Injury Cover?
Personal and advertising injury is split into two categories: personal injury liability and advertising injury liability.
Personal Injury Liability
A personal injury is an act that violates the rights of an individual or business. This does not include physical harm or bodily injuries.
Personal injuries include:
- Libel, slander, or defamation
- Copyright or other intellectual property infringement
- False arrest detention or imprisonment
- Malicious prosecution
- Wrongful eviction or entry of a room, dwelling, or premises
- Violation of the right to privacy
Advertising Injury Liability
Like personal injuries, advertising injuries are also acts that violate the rights of an individual or business, except these occur in the context of an advertisement.
In this case, the claimant may be entitled to sue for both personal and advertising injury.
For example, if you run an Instagram ad that slanders one of your competitors, that could be considered both a personal and an advertising injury. However, if you posted a slanderous review of a competitor, that would only be considered a personal injury because it’s not part of an advertisement.
Personal and advertising injury coverage could pay for legal fees, court expenses, and any settlements or judgments levied against you up to the limits listed on your policy’s declarations page.
What Does Personal and Advertising Injury Not Cover?
Like any insurance policy, personal and advertising injury excludes certain claims from coverage.
Personal and Advertising Injury Exclusions
- Knowingly violating the rights of another person
- Publishing material about a person or business that you know is false
- Criminal acts
- Contractual liability
- Breach of contract
- Failure to meet customer expectations of a product or service
- Wrongful description of prices
- Infringement of copyright, patent, trademark, or trade secrets (some coverage is given back for content included in your advertising)
- Individuals working in media and internet-type businesses
- Electronic chat rooms or bulletin boards
- Unauthorized use of another’s name or product
- Pollution
- Illegally recording and distributing material
Does FLIP’s General Liability Insurance Include Personal and Advertising Injury?
Yes! With a base FLIP policy, you automatically get personal and advertising injury coverage starting from $25.92 a month.
Learn more about which industries we cover and how you can get liability insurance for your food or beverage business today!
Read More
- See also: Bodily Injury
- See also: Claim
- See also: Declarations Page
- General Liability Insurance
- FLIP’s Insurance Coverage Details
