diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index de97dee..118ebbd 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
-from pkg_resources import parse_version
 from configparser import ConfigParser
 import setuptools
-assert parse_version(setuptools.__version__)>=parse_version('36.2')
 
 # note: all settings are in settings.ini; edit there, not here
 config = ConfigParser(delimiters=['='])