GIM10050 - Non-resident insurers: regulatory background: EEA insurers: meaning of 鈥榖ranch鈥� and 鈥榩rovision of services鈥�
Article 3 of the EC Second Non-Life Directive provides that for the purposes of the First and Second Non-Life Directives any permanent presence of an undertaking in the territory of a Member State shall be treated in the same way as an agency or branch. This is the case even if that presence does not take the form of a branch or agency, but consists merely of an office managed by the undertaking鈥檚 own staff or of a person who is independent but has permanent authority to act for the undertaking as an agency would. In Kvaerner plc v Staatssecretaris van Financi毛n [2001] STC 1007, the ECJ held that:
鈥淎rticle 3 of the Directive must therefore be interpreted as extending the concept of 鈥榓gency or branch鈥� in art 2(c) of the Directive so that it applies in the broadest sense, whatever the formal term used.鈥欌€�
If there is no branch in this wide sense, which is broadly equivalent to a 鈥榩ermanent establishment鈥� under international tax law (GIM10110), then any EEA insurer effecting contracts with UK residents or establishments will be 鈥榩roviding services鈥�.