The laws of a Member State need not require approval of the merger by the general meeting of the acquiring company if the following conditions are fulfilled:
the publication provided for in Article 6 must be effected, for the acquiring company, at least 1 month before the date fixed for the general meeting of the company or companies being acquired which is to decide on the draft terms of merger;
at least 1 month before the date specified in point (a), all shareholders of the acquiring company must be entitled to inspect the documents specified in Article 11(1) at the registered office of the acquiring company;
one or more shareholders of the acquiring company holding a minimum percentage of the subscribed capital must be entitled to require that a general meeting of the acquiring company be called to decide whether to approve the merger; this minimum percentage may not be fixed at more than 5 %. Member States may, however, provide for the exclusion of non-voting shares from this calculation.
For the purposes of point (b) of the first paragraph, Article 11(2), (3) and (4) shall apply.