diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index b4d120c1c1..4f6cbb7430 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -3,5 +3,5 @@ coverage>=4.0.3
 Sphinx>=1.3.5
 pexpect>=4.0.0
 pyyaml
-setuptools
+packaging
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index c6ebb95c30..9ad4bb75f4 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -7,7 +7,9 @@
 setup(
     name='sos',
     version=VERSION,
-    install_requires=['pexpect', 'pyyaml'],
+    # to avoid a packaging dependency on older RHELs
+    # we only declare it on recent Python versions
+    install_requires=['pexpect', 'pyyaml', 'packaging;python_version>="3.11"'],
     description=(
         'A set of tools to gather troubleshooting information from a system'
     ),
diff --git a/sos.spec b/sos.spec
index 3cf245028b..b575b5232d 100644
--- a/sos.spec
+++ b/sos.spec
@@ -10,7 +10,11 @@ BuildRequires: python3-devel
 BuildRequires: python3-setuptools
 Requires: python3-rpm
 Requires: python3-pexpect
+%if 0%{?rhel} && 0%{?rhel} < 10
 Requires: python3-setuptools
+%else
+Requires: python3-packaging
+%endif
 Recommends: python3-magic
 # Mandatory just for uploading to a SFTP server:
 Recommends: python3-requests