diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 880fdc2..792959f 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # czso (development version)
 
 * fix documentation to avoid CRAN NOTEs
+* handle invalid JSON in old CZSO API
 * hard-deprecate old functions; they will be removed in the next version
 
 # czso 0.3.10
diff --git a/R/core.R b/R/core.R
index 817b90b..4fe6d88 100644
--- a/R/core.R
+++ b/R/core.R
@@ -115,7 +115,8 @@ czso_get_dataset_metadata <- function(dataset_id) {
                       httr::user_agent(ua_string)) %>%
     httr::stop_for_status() %>%
     httr::content(as = "text")
-  mtdt <- jsonlite::fromJSON(mtdt_c)[["result"]]
+  mtdt_c_sanitised <- gsub("\\t", "\\s", mtdt_c)
+  mtdt <- jsonlite::fromJSON(mtdt_c_sanitised)[["result"]]
   if(is.null(mtdt)) cli::cli_abort("No dataset found with this ID.")
   return(mtdt)
 }