diff --git a/packages/babel-generator/src/index.js b/packages/babel-generator/src/index.js
index 711a335675..124789ef28 100644
--- a/packages/babel-generator/src/index.js
+++ b/packages/babel-generator/src/index.js
@@ -70,6 +70,11 @@ function normalizeOptions(code, opts, tokens): Format {
 
   if (format.minified) {
     format.compact = true;
+
+    format.shouldPrintComment = format.shouldPrintComment || (() => format.comments);
+  } else {
+    format.shouldPrintComment = format.shouldPrintComment || ((value) => format.comments ||
+      (value.indexOf("@license") >= 0 || value.indexOf("@preserve") >= 0));
   }
 
   if (format.compact === "auto") {
diff --git a/packages/babel-generator/src/printer.js b/packages/babel-generator/src/printer.js
index 323342e54d..a03c4f0f31 100644
--- a/packages/babel-generator/src/printer.js
+++ b/packages/babel-generator/src/printer.js
@@ -490,21 +490,8 @@ export default class Printer {
     return (node && (leading ? node.leadingComments : node.trailingComments)) || [];
   }
 
-  _shouldPrintComment(comment) {
-    if (this.format.shouldPrintComment) {
-      return this.format.shouldPrintComment(comment.value);
-    } else {
-      if (!this.format.minified &&
-          (comment.value.indexOf("@license") >= 0 || comment.value.indexOf("@preserve") >= 0)) {
-        return true;
-      } else {
-        return this.format.comments;
-      }
-    }
-  }
-
   _printComment(comment) {
-    if (!this._shouldPrintComment(comment)) return;
+    if (!this.format.shouldPrintComment(comment.value)) return;
 
     // Some plugins use this to mark comments as removed using the AST-root 'comments' property,
     // where they can't manually mutate the AST node comment lists.