1. Member States shall provide for preventive administrative, judicial or notarial control, or any combination thereof, of the instrument of constitution and statutes of companies listed in Annexes II and IIB at the time of their formation, and of any amendments to those documents. That requirement shall be without prejudice to national laws that, in accordance with Member States' legal systems, require that those documents be drawn up and certified in due legal form.

2. Member States shall ensure that their laws on the formation of companies listed in Annexes II and IIB lay down a procedure for the legality check of a company's instrument of constitution, and of its statutes if they are contained in a separate instrument. Member States shall ensure that a legality check is also carried out in the case of any amendment of those documents.

Through the legality check referred to in the first subparagraph, it shall be verified at least that:

(a) the formal requirements for the instrument of constitution, and for the statutes if they are contained in a separate instrument, are fulfilled and, where templates referred to in Article 13h are used, that they are used correctly;

(b) the mandatory minimum content is included;

(c) the substantive legal requirements are met; and