Zurich has filed a lawsuit against Sony Corporation in a bid to avoid paying the technology giant’s defence costs and indemnify it against a number of class actions it is facing over the hacking scandal on its Playstation network earlier this year.

Sony previously asked that Zurich “defend and potentially indemnify them” from claims, class actions and probes in relation to the data breach.

But Zurich Insurance and its US subsidiary Zurich American filed a suit asking the New York Supreme Court to rule that it does not have to defend or indemnify Sony against any claims.

Sony is facing almost 60 class actions in the US over a data breach which resulted in the theft of the financial and personal information of more than 100 million users in April.

Zurich American has received claims from Sony to cover it under a commercial general liability policy it wrote for Sony Computer Entertainment of America from April 1.

But Zurich says its policy only covers Sony for “bodily injury, property damage or personal and advertising injury”, and these claims have not been made in any of the class actions.

Zurich has also filed suits against other insurers including units of Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, AIG and Ace asking the court to clarify their responsibilities under various insurance policies they had written for Sony.