diff --git a/nselib/url.lua b/nselib/url.lua
index b6ed13af1..f17ca7327 100644
--- a/nselib/url.lua
+++ b/nselib/url.lua
@@ -152,8 +152,6 @@ function parse(url, default)
     -- initialize default parameters
     local parsed = {}
     for i,v in base.pairs(default or parsed) do parsed[i] = v end
-    -- empty url is parsed to nil
-    if not url or url == "" then return nil, "invalid url" end
     -- remove whitespace
     -- url = string.gsub(url, "%s", "")
     -- get fragment