diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index a250c9e8e..99c7ba23a 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ setenv =
     LC_ALL=C
     LC_TIME=C
     LANG=C
-    SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS=stdlib
     coverage: COVERAGE=--cov-report xml --cov-report html --cov=wcs/ --cov-config .coveragerc -v
 passenv =
     USER