Insurance business through branches or under freedom to provide services

(1) Direct insurance undertakings may, in accordance with sections 58 and 59, conduct insurance business in other member states or contracting states through branches or under the freedom to provide services.
(2) A branch is an agency or branch office of a direct insurance undertaking in the territory of another member state or contracting state. A branch also exists where the insurance business is conducted by a person who, although self-employed, is permanently entrusted with it and acts from a place of business in the other member state or contracting state.
(3) Freedom to provide services within the meaning of this Act exists where a direct insurance undertaking with its registered office in a member state or contracting state covers, from its registered office or from a branch in a member state or contracting state, risks situated in another member state or contracting state, without the undertaking making use of a branch there. The member state or contracting state in which the risk is situated is 1. in the case of insurance of risks relating to immovable property, in particular buildings and installations, and the contents thereof covered by the same contract, the member state or contracting state in which those items are situated, 2. in the case of insurance of risks relating to vehicles of any kind that are required to be entered in an official or officially recognised register in a member state or contracting state and to bear a distinguishing mark, that member state or contracting state, 3. in the case of insurance of travel and holiday risks under insurance contracts with a term of no more than four months, the member state or contracting state in which the policyholder carried out the legal acts necessary for the conclusion of the contract, and 4. in all other cases, a) where the policyholder is a natural person, the member state or contracting state in which he or she has his or her habitual residence, and b) where the policyholder is not a natural person, the member state or contracting state in which the undertaking, place of business, or corresponding establishment to which the contract relates is located.
(4) Departing from subsection (3), second sentence, point 2, in the case of a vehicle transferred from one member state or contracting state to another, the following state is to be regarded as the member state or contracting state in which the risk is situated, in accordance with the choice of the person responsible for the liability insurance: 1. the state of registration, or 2. immediately after acceptance of the vehicle by the buyer, for a period of 30 days, the member state or contracting state of destination. The first sentence, point 2, also applies where the vehicle has not been officially registered in the member state or contracting state of destination.