diff --git a/lib/ProductOpener/Import.pm b/lib/ProductOpener/Import.pm
index b1ebdd24fb16b..439b5756c1d05 100644
--- a/lib/ProductOpener/Import.pm
+++ b/lib/ProductOpener/Import.pm
@@ -962,11 +962,26 @@ sub import_csv_file ($args_ref) {
 			my $existing_date = $product_ref->{sources_fields}{"org-gs1"}{publicationDateTime}
 				// $product_ref->{sources_fields}{"org-gs1"}{lastChangeDateTime};
 
-			if ((defined $imported_date) and (defined $existing_date)) {
+			if (    (defined $imported_date)
+				and ($imported_date ne "")
+				and (defined $existing_date)
+				and ($existing_date ne ""))
+			{
 
-				if (DateTime::Format::ISO8601->parse_datetime($imported_date)->epoch
-					< DateTime::Format::ISO8601->parse_datetime($existing_date)->epoch)
-				{
+				# Broken date strings can cause parse_datetime to fail
+				my $imported_date_t;
+				my $existing_date_t;
+				eval {
+					$imported_date_t = DateTime::Format::ISO8601->parse_datetime($imported_date)->epoch;
+					$existing_date_t = DateTime::Format::ISO8601->parse_datetime($existing_date)->epoch;
+				};
+
+				if ($@) {
+					$log->warn("Could not parse imported or existing dates",
+						{imported_date => $imported_date, existing_date => $existing_date, error => $@})
+						if $log->is_warn();
+				}
+				elsif ($imported_date_t < $existing_date_t) {
 					$log->debug(
 						"existing GS1 data with a greater sources_fields:org-gs1:publicationDateTime - skipping product",
 						{