diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 1033058a..0a786c5a 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 [build-system]
 # Specify the required build system.
-requires = ["setuptools"]
+# The version requirement is necessary to get rid of setup.py; see
+#  https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/pull/1675
+requires = ["setuptools >= 40.9.0"]
 build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
deleted file mode 100755
index 06269e42..00000000
--- a/setup.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python3
-
-from setuptools import setup
-
-# See setup.cfg for the actual configuration.
-setup()