diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 3384e73194..61d78d4d8d 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -35,6 +35,9 @@ before_install:
 - sudo apt-get -qq update
 - sudo apt-get install -y enchant
 install:
+# Temporary escape hatch for setuptools 50.0:
+# See https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/blob/17cb9d6bf249cefe653d3bdb712582409035a7db/CHANGES.rst#v5000
+- export SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS=stdlib
 - pip install -U setuptools
 - pip install tox coverage coveralls
 - virtualenv --version