diff --git a/packages/babel/package.json b/packages/babel/package.json
index 97497c1dec..7842b4e062 100644
--- a/packages/babel/package.json
+++ b/packages/babel/package.json
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@
     "home-or-tmp": "^1.0.0",
     "is-integer": "^1.0.4",
     "js-tokens": "1.0.1",
+    "json5": "^0.4.0",
     "line-numbers": "0.2.0",
     "lodash": "^3.10.0",
     "minimatch": "^2.0.3",
@@ -70,7 +71,6 @@
     "slash": "^1.0.0",
     "source-map": "^0.4.0",
     "source-map-support": "^0.2.10",
-    "strip-json-comments": "^1.0.2",
     "to-fast-properties": "^1.0.0",
     "trim-right": "^1.0.0",
     "try-resolve": "^1.0.0"
diff --git a/packages/babel/src/transformation/file/options/option-manager.js b/packages/babel/src/transformation/file/options/option-manager.js
index 29b7d39946..00aefb15af 100644
--- a/packages/babel/src/transformation/file/options/option-manager.js
+++ b/packages/babel/src/transformation/file/options/option-manager.js
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { validateOption, normaliseOptions } from "./index";
-import stripJsonComments from "strip-json-comments";
+import json5 from "json5";
 import isAbsolute from "path-is-absolute";
 import pathExists from "path-exists";
 import clone from "lodash/lang/clone";
@@ -58,10 +58,10 @@ export default class OptionManager {
     var opts;
 
     try {
-      opts = jsonCache[content] = jsonCache[content] || JSON.parse(stripJsonComments(content));
+      opts = jsonCache[content] = jsonCache[content] || json5.parse(content);
       if (key) opts = opts[key];
     } catch (err) {
-      err.message = `${loc}: ${err.message}`;
+      err.message = `${loc}: Error while parsing JSON - ${err.message}`;
       throw err;
     }
 
@@ -178,7 +178,9 @@ export default class OptionManager {
     }
 
     // resolve all .babelrc files
-    this.findConfigs(opts.filename);
+    if (opts.babelrc !== false) {
+      this.findConfigs(opts.filename);
+    }
 
     // merge in env
     var envKey = process.env.BABEL_ENV || process.env.NODE_ENV || "development";