diff --git a/http.c b/http.c
index 8d94e2c63a..7a168ed5a8 100644
--- a/http.c
+++ b/http.c
@@ -836,8 +836,14 @@ static CURL *get_curl_handle(void)
 		}
 	}
 
-	if (curl_http_proxy) {
-		curl_easy_setopt(result, CURLOPT_PROXY, curl_http_proxy);
+	if (curl_http_proxy && curl_http_proxy[0] == '\0') {
+		/*
+		 * Handle case with the empty http.proxy value here to keep
+		 * common code clean.
+		 * NB: empty option disables proxying at all.
+		 */
+		curl_easy_setopt(result, CURLOPT_PROXY, "");
+	} else if (curl_http_proxy) {
 #if LIBCURL_VERSION_NUM >= 0x071800
 		if (starts_with(curl_http_proxy, "socks5h"))
 			curl_easy_setopt(result,
@@ -861,6 +867,9 @@ static CURL *get_curl_handle(void)
 			strbuf_release(&url);
 		}
 
+		if (!proxy_auth.host)
+			die("Invalid proxy URL '%s'", curl_http_proxy);
+
 		curl_easy_setopt(result, CURLOPT_PROXY, proxy_auth.host);
 #if LIBCURL_VERSION_NUM >= 0x071304
 		var_override(&curl_no_proxy, getenv("NO_PROXY"));