diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/pkgconfig/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pkgconfig/default.nix
index b5fc0c4499c9..89fc2fd32f74 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/pkgconfig/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pkgconfig/default.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 { lib
 , buildPythonPackage
 , fetchFromGitHub
+, pythonOlder
 , poetry-core
 , pkg-config
 , pytestCheckHook
@@ -37,6 +38,10 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
 
   nativeBuildInputs = [ poetry-core ];
 
+  # ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils'
+  # https://github.com/matze/pkgconfig/issues/64
+  doCheck = pythonOlder "3.12";
+
   nativeCheckInputs = [ pytestCheckHook ];
 
   pythonImportsCheck = [ "pkgconfig" ];